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MAMDi:  IN  CALIFORNIA: 
ART,  IMAGE,  AND  IDENTITY, 
1900-2000 


This  opulent  and  expansive  volume,  published  in 
conjunction  with  the  Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of 
Art's  monumental  exhibition  Made  in  California:  Art, 
Image,  and  Identity,  1900-2000,  charts  the  dynamic 
relationship  between  the  arts  and  popular  conceptions 
of  California  in  the  twentieth  century.  Displaying  a 
dazzling  array  of  fine  art  and  ephemera,  Made  in 
California  challenges  us  to  reexamine  the  ways  in  which 
the  state  has  been  envisioned  and  portrayed.  Unusually 
inclusive,  visually  intriguing,  and  beautifully  produced. 
Made  in  California  will  appeal  to  anyone  who  has  lived 
in,  visited,  or  imagined  California. 

Drawn  from  the  exhibition,  which  encompasses 
more  than  1,200  examples  of  art  and  ephemera  from 
many  public  and  private  collections,  Made  in  California 
is  an  image-driven  look  at  the  past  century  featuring 
more  than  400  reproductions  of  works  in  a  range  of 
media,  from  painting,  sculpture,  prints,  drawings,  and 
photographs  to  furniture,  fashion,  and  film.  The  book 
also  includes  images  of  more  than  150  cultural  artifacts 
such  as  tourist  brochures,  posters,  labor  pamphlets,  and 
periodicals  that  convey  the  richness  and  complexity  of 
twentieth-century  California.  Arranged  provocatively 
by  theme,  these  works  of  art  and  ephemera  take  us  on  a 
visual  tour  of  a  state  promoted,  among  myriad  other 
ways,  as  a  bountiful  paradise  by  boosters  early  in  the 
century,  as  a  glamour  capital  by  Hollywood  in  the  1920s 
and  1930s,  as  a  suburban  Utopia  in  the  late  1940s  and 
1950s,  as  a  haven  for  counterculture  in  the  1960s  and 
1970s,  and  as  a  new  multicultural  frontier  in  the  1980s 
and  1990s. 

The  book's  exploration  of  how  these  themes  were 
reflected  and  contested  in  California's  visual  culture 
deepens  our  understanding  of  the  state's  artistic  tradi- 
tions as  well  as  its  fascinating  history.  As  co-curator 
Stephanie  Barron  notes  in  her  introduction:  "From  vast, 
sweeping  poppy  fields  to  crowded  suburban  beaches, 
from  Hollywood  to  Yosemite  Valley,  from  beatnik  San 
Francisco  to  a  disaster-prone  Los  Angeles,  the  twentieth- 
century  imagination  was  infused  with  popular  iconog- 
raphy derived  from  California.  Yet  there  was  never  a 
single,  prevailing  image  of  the  state.  There  are  and  have 
been,  in  fact,  many  Californias,  multiple  perceptions 
of  the  region  shaped  not  only  by  predictable  forces  such 
as  the  tourist  or  real  estate  industries  but  also  by  artists 
who  at  times  reinforced  prevailing  views  and  at  others 
complicated,  subverted,  or  refuted  them." 


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M AMD II  IN 

CALIFORNIA 


ART,  IMAGE,  AND  IDENTITY,  19DD-2D0D 


Stephanie  Barron 

with  essays  by 

Sheri  Bernstein 
Ilene  Susan  Fort 

Stephanie  Barron 
Sheri  Bernstein 
Michael  Dear 

Howard  N.  Fox 

Richard  Rodriguez 

Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art 

University  of  California  Press    Berkeley  •  los  angeles  •  london 


This  book  was  published  in  conjunction  with 
the  exhibition  Made  in  California:  Art,  Image, 
and  Identity,  1900-2000,  organized  by  the 
Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art.  The  exhibi- 
tion was  made  possible  by  a  major  grant  from 
the  S.  Mark  Toper  Foundation,  founded  in 
1989,  Q  private  family  foundation  dedicated 
to  enhancing  the  quality  of  people's  lives. 
Additional  support  was  provided  by  the  Donald 
Bren  Foundation,  the  Notional  Endowment  for 
the  Arts,  Bonk  of  America,  Helen  and  Peter  Bing, 
Peter  Norton  Family  Foundation,  See's  Candies, 
the  Brotman  Foundation  of  California,  and 
Formers  Insurance.  Primary  in-kind  support 
for  the  exhibition  was  provided  by  FromeStore. 
Additional  in-kind  support  was  provided  by 
KLON  88.1  FM,  Gardner  Lithograph,  and 
Appleton  Coated  LLC. 

Exhibition  Schedule 

Section  1: 

October  22,  2000-March  18,  2001 

Sections  2,  3,  and  4: 

October  22,  2000-February  25,  2001 

Section  5: 

November  12,  2000-February  25,  2001 

Copublished  by  the  Los  Angeles  County  Museum 
of  Art,  5905  Wilshire  Boulevard,  Los  Angeles, 
California,  90036,  and  University  of  California 
Press,  Berkeley,  Los  Angeles,  and  London. 

®  2000  by  Museum  Associates,  Los  Angeles 
County  Museum  of  Art  and  the  Regents  of  the 
University  of  California.  All  rights  reserved. 
No  part  of  the  contents  of  this  book  may  be 
reproduced  without  the  written  permission  of 
the  publisher. 

Library  of  Congress 
Cotaloging-m-Publicotion  Data: 

Barron,  Stephanie,  1950- 

Made  in  California  :  art,  image,  and  identity, 
1900-2000  /  Stephanie  Barron,  Sheri  Bernstein, 
llene  Susan  Fort ;  with  essays  by  Stephanie 
Barron  ...  [etol.]. 
p.  cm. 

Published  in  conjunction  with  on  exhibition 
held  at  the  Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art, 
Los  Angeles,  Calif.,  Oct.  22,  2000-Feb.  25,  2001. 

Includes  bilbiogrophicol  references  and  index. 

ISBN  0-520-22764-6  (cloth  :  alk.  paper)  - 
ISBN  0-520-22765-4  (pbk.  :  alk  paper) 

1.  Arts,  American— California— Exhibitions. 
2.  Arts,  Modern— 20th  century— California- 
Exhibitions.  3.  California— In  art— Exhibitions, 
I.  Bernstein,  Sheri,  1966-  II.  Fort,  llene  Susan. 
III.  Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art.  IV.  Title. 

NX510.C2B37  2000 
704.9'499794053-dc21 


Director  of  Publications:  Garrett  White 

Editors:  Nolo  Butler  and  Thomas  Frick 

Designer:  Scott  Taylor 

Production  coordinators:  Rachel  Ware  Zooi 

and  Chris  Coniglio 

Supervising  photographer:  Peter  Brenner 

Rights  and  Reproductions  coordinator: 

Cheryle  T.  Robertson 

Printed  by  Gardner  Lithograph,  Bueno  Park, 
California,  on  Appleton  Utopia  Two  Matte  Text 


Most  photographs  are  reproduced  courtesy 
of  the  creators  and  lenders  of  the  material 
depicted.  For  certain  artwork  and  documentary 
photographs  we  hove  been  unable  to  trace 
copyright  holders.  We  would  appreciate  notifi- 
cation of  additional  credits  for  acknowledg- 
ment in  future  editions. 

The  typefaces  used  in  this  catalogue.  Minion 
(Adobe),  Tarzono  and  Emperor  (Emigre),  and 
Chicago  (Apple),  were  designed  in  California. 
The  title  font,  based  on  the  letterforms  on  a 
1940  California  license  plate,  was  created  for 
the  exhibition. 

Front  cover 

Background: 

Granville  Redmond,  California  Poppy  Field 

(detail),  n.d.,  oil  on  canvas 

Circular  details,  from  left  to  right,  top  to  bottom: 

Julius  Shulman,  Cose  Study  House  "22.  1958, 
gelatm-silver  print 


nes  Weeks,  Two  Musicians, 


I  on  canvas 


Jose  Moya  del  Pino,  Chinese  Mother  and  Child, 
1933,  oil  on  canvas 

John  Divolo,  Zuma  No.  21,  1977,  from  the  port- 
folio Zuma  One,  1978,  dye-imbibition  print 

Roger  Minick,  VJoman  with  Scarf  at  Inspiration 
Point,  yosemite  National  Park,  1980, 
dye-coupler  print 

Carlos  Almaraz,  Suburban  Nightmare,  1983, 
oil  on  canvas 

Will  Connell,  Make-Up,  from  the  publication 
In  Pictures,  c.  1937,  gelotin-silver  print 

Chris  Burden,  Trans-Fixed,  1974,  photo 
documentation  of  performance 

California  for  the  Settler,  brochure  produced 
by  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad,  1911 

Maurice  Braun,  Moonrise  over  San  Diego  Bay, 
1915,  oil  on  canvas 


Background: 

Maurice  Broun,  Moonrise  over  San  Diego  Bay, 

1915,  oil  on  canvas 

Circular  details,  from  left  to  right,  top  to  bottom: 

David  Hockney,  The  Splash,  1966,  acrylic  on 
canvas 

Willie  Robert  Middlebrook,  In  His  "Own"  Image, 
from  the  series  Portraits  of  My  People,  1992, 
sixteen  gelatm-silver  prints 

Elmer  Bischoff,  Two  Figures  at  the  Seashore, 
1957,  oil  on  canvas 

Catherine  Opie,  Self-Portrait,  1993, 
chromogenic  development  (Ektocolor)  print 

Alfredo  Ramos  Martinez,  Woman  with  Fruit, 
1933,  charcoal  and  tempera  on  newsprint 

Official  program  for  the  Son  Francisco— Oakland 
Bay  Bridge  celebration,  1936 

Ruben  Ortiz-Torres,  California  Taco,  Santa 
Barbara,  California,  1995,  silver  dye-bleach 
(Cibachrome)  print 


Dorothea  Lange,  Pledge  of  Allegiance,  at 
Raphael  Elementary  School,  a  Few  Weeks  before 
Svacuation/One  Nation  Indivisible,  April  20, 
1942,  1942,  gelotin-silver  print 

Millard  Sheets,  Angel's  Flight,  1931,  oil  on 


Lorry  Sliver,  Contestants,  Muscle  Beach, 
California,  1954,  gelatm-silver  print 

California:  America's  Vacation  Land,  poster 
produced  by  New  York  Central  Lines,  with 
illustration  by  Jon  0.  Brubcker,  c.  1930 

Pages  2-18 

p.  2:  California:  America's  Vacation  Land 
(detail),  poster  produced  by  New  /ork  Central 
Lines,  with  illustration  by  Jon  0.  Bruboker, 
C.1930 

p.  3:  Joel  Sternfeld,  After  a  Flash  Flood,  Rancho 
Mirage,  California  (detail),  1979,  chromogenic 


pp.  4-5,  top:  Dana  and  Towers  Photography 
Studio,  '121.  Looking  East  on  Market  Street 
(detail),  1906,  gelatm-silver  print 

pp.  4-5,  bottom:  Dennis  Hopper,  Double 
Standard  (detail),  1961,  printed  later,  gelatm- 
silver  print 

p.  6:  Maurice  Braun,  Moonrise  over  San  Diego 
Bay  (detail),  1915,  oil  on  canvas 

p.  7:  John  Divola,  Zuma  No.  21  (detail),  1977, 
from  the  portfolio  Zuma  One,  1978,  dye- 
imbibition  print 

p.  8:  Dorothea  Lange,  Untitled  [End  of  Shift, 
3:30,  Richmond,  California,  September  1942], 
1942,  gelatm-silver  print 

p.  10:  Edward  S.  Curtis,  Mitat-Wailaki,  from 
The  North  American  Indian,  vol.  14  (1924), 
pi.  472,  photogravure 

p.  11:  George  Hurrell,  Joan  Crawford  (detail), 
1932,  gelatm-silver  print 

p.  12:  Phil  Dike,  Surfer  (detail),  c.  1931,  oil  on 
canvas 

p.  13:  Eviction  of  the  Arechigo  family  from 
Chavez  Ravine,  May  8,  1959 

p.  14:  Sid  Avery,  Dwight  D.  Eisenhower  in 

La  Quinta,  California,  1961,  gelatm-silver  print 

p.  15:  Pirklejones,  Window  of  the  Black  Panther 
Party  National  Headquarters  (detail),  1968, 
gelotm-silver  print 

p.  16:  Catherine  Opie,  Self-Portrait,  1993, 
chromogenic  development  (Ektocolor)  print 

p.  17:  Roger  Minick,  Woman  with  Scarf  at 
Inspiration  Point,  Yosemite  National  Park 
(detail),  1980,  dye-coupler  print 

p.  18:  Robbert  Flick,  Pico  B  (detail),  1998-99, 
silver  dye-bleach  (Cibachrome)  print 


CONTENTS 


Foreword      22 

Andrea  L  Rich 

Sponsor's  Statement      24 

Janice  Taper  Lazarof 


o 


Introduction:      27 
The  Making  of  Made  in  California 

Stephanie  Barron 

Peopling  California      49 

Michael  Dear 


Selling  California,  1900-1920      65 

Sheri  Bernstein 


Contested  Eden,  1920-1940      103 

Sheri  Bernstein 


The  California  Home  Front,  1940-1960      147 

Sheri  Bernstein 


Tremors  in  Paradise,  1960-1980 

Howard  N.  Fox 


Many  Californias,  1980-2000 

Howard  N.  Fox 


193 


235 


Checklist  of  the  Exhibition  281 

I 

Lenders  to  the  Exhibition  325 

Acknowledgments  328 

Selected  Bibliography  335 

Illustration  Credits  344 

Index  346 


Where  the  Poppies  Grow      273 

Richard  Rodriguez 


FOREWORD 


The  Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art  has  a  long  history  of  originating  innovative  exhibitions  that 
seek  to  place  art  and  artists  within  a  particular  historical,  political,  social,  and  economic  context.  Made  in 
California:  Art,  Image,  and  Identity,  1900-2000  continues  that  tradition.  In  this  exhibition,  lacma  has 
undertaken  the  ambitious  task  of  focusing  attention  on  the  art  created  about  California  in  the  twentieth 
century.  It  is  fitting  that  an  exhibition  of  such  far-reaching  scope  should  be  organized  here,  not  simply 
because  lacma  is  the  only  encyclopedic  museum  in  the  western  United  States  with  a  comprehensive 
collection  of  twentieth-century  art,  but  more  importantly  because  Made  in  California  extends  the 
museum's  commitment  to  groundbreaking  thematic  exhibitions  with  relevance  to  contemporary  life. 
From  its  founding  early  in  the  twentieth  century,  the  Los  Angeles  Museum  of  History,  Science,  and  Art 
supported  California  art  through  the  presentation  of  annual  exhibitions  devoted  to  painting,  sculpture, 
and  the  graphic  arts.  The  museum  also  hosted  the  annual  exhibitions  of  the  California  Watercolor 
Society  from  the  1920s  through  the  1940s. 

The  international  regard  enjoyed  by  visual  artists  active  in  California  today  attests  to  the  richness 
and  vitality  of  the  work  produced  here.  California  no  longer  generates  only  the  booster  images  popular 
at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  it  is  also  at  the  center  of  national  debates  on  a  wide  range 
of  issues,  from  agriculture,  technology,  and  entertainment  to  affirmative  action  and  immigration.  The 
state  is  the  focus  of  Utopian  as  well  as  dystopic  views  of  contemporary  society.  With  that  background  in 
mind,  Made  in  California  was  not  intended  as  an  art  historical  survey  or  a  selection  of  a  pantheon  of 
artists.  We  hope,  rather,  to  encourage  new  ways  of  thinking  about  many  familiar  ideas  and  objects  and 
to  inspire  our  audience  to  discover  unfamiliar  work.  The  exhibition  will  provoke  some,  surprise  others, 
and  challenge  many. 

Any  exhibition  claiming  to  address  the  image  of  California  and  how  it  has  been  championed, 
contested,  and  disseminated  by  artists  and  through  popular  culture  must  consider  the  questions  of  which 
and  whose  California  is  being  traced.  The  exhibition  was  conceived  by  an  interdisciplinary  team  that 
created  a  thematic  show  in  which  paintings,  sculptures,  graphic  and  decorative  art,  costumes,  and 
photography  are  seen  in  new  and  sometimes  surprising  juxtapositions  in  the  same  rooms  with  related 
examples  of  newspapers,  pamphlets,  posters,  and  advertisements — what  we  refer  to  here  and  elsewhere 
as  "material  culture."  In  this  way,  the  exhibition  attempts  to  situate  art  within  a  broader  social  context. 

Made  in  California  has  been  an  extraordinary  undertaking  for  lacma,  particularly  considering 
its  complex  subject  and  the  collaborative  approach  employed  to  produce  it.  Encompassing  more  than 
50,000  square  feet  in  six  separate  exhibition  spaces,  and  on  view  for  more  than  five  months,  the  exhibi- 
tion has  called  for  remarkable  cooperation  among  several  curatorial  departments,  as  well  as  early  and 
consistent  participation  from  the  museum's  education,  exhibitions,  design,  and  publications  departments. 
The  exhibition  effort  was  adepdy  led  by  Stephanie  Barron,  Senior  Curator  of  Modern  and  Contemporary 
Art  and  Vice  President  of  Education  and  Public  Programs,  who  worked  closely  with  Curator  of  American 
Art  Ilene  Susan  Fort  and  Exhibition  Associate  Sheri  Bernstein.  They  have  coordinated  the  hard  work  of 
their  colleagues  in  conceiving  and  producing  this  show  for  our  audiences.  The  content  of  the  exhibition 
has  also  been  continually  enriched  through  close  involvement  with  a  group  of  outside  advisors  from 
many  fields.  Their  names  are  listed  on  page  334;  their  counsel  and  commitment  to  the  project  have  con- 
tributed immeasurably  to  its  success. 


i 


Made  in  Calif ortiici  draws  on  the  depth  of  lac: ma's  collections  in  that  approximately  20  percent 
of  the  art  in  the  show  comes  from  our  holdings  in  many  departments.  To  the  hundreds  of  lenders, 
institutional  and  private,  who  have  truly  made  this  undertaking  possible,  we  extend  our  deepest  thanks. 

Presenting  an  exhibition  this  ambitious  is  a  costly  undertaking,  and  we  are  tremendously  grateful 
to  the  S.  Mark  Taper  Foundation  for  its  early  commitment  to  Made  in  California  and  for  a  major  grant 
that  made  this  exhibition  possible.  Given  the  S.  Mark  Taper  Foundation's  extraordinary  commitment  to 
enhancing  the  quality  of  people's  lives  in  California,  it  was  an  ideal  partner  in  this  project. 

Additionally,  we  are  delighted  to  acknowledge  the  Donald  Bren  Foundation,  the  National 
Endowment  for  the  Arts,  Helen  and  Peter  Bing,  Peter  and  Eileen  Norton,  See's  Candies,  the  Brotman 
Foundation  of  California,  and  Farmers  Insurance  for  their  sponsorship.  In-kind  support  was  provided  by 
FrameStore,  klon  88.1  fm,  Gardner  Lithograph,  and  Appleton  Coated  llc. 

lacma's  departments  of  film,  music,  and  education,  the  lacma  Institute  for  Art  and  Cultures, 
and  LACMALab  have  all  planned  innovative  programming  for  adults,  students,  families,  and  children 
during  the  extensive  run  of  Made  in  California.  We  are  also  gratified  that  a  number  of  fellow  visual  and 
performing  arts  and  other  institutions  have  joined  with  us  in  focusing  their  programming  on  aspects 
of  the  arts  and  California,  lacma  is  pleased  to  have  worked  with  colleagues  from  a  number  of  these 
institutions,  including  the  Automobile  Club  of  Southern  California,  the  Autry  Museum  of  Western 
Heritage,  the  Japanese  American  National  Museum,  the  Los  Angeles  Chamber  Orchestra,  the  Los  Angeles 
Conservancy,  the  Los  Angeles  Philharmonic,  the  Los  Angeles  Public  Library,  the  mak  Center  for  Art 
and  Architecture,  the  Mark  Taper  Forum,  the  Museum  of  Television  and  Radio,  the  Pacific  Asia  Museum, 
the  Petersen  Automotive  Museum,  the  Santa  Barbara  Contemporary  Arts  Forum,  the  Santa  Monica 
Museum  of  Art,  the  Skirball  Cultural  Center,  the  Society  of  Architectural  Historians,  the  use  Fisher 
Gallery,  and  the  use  Schools  of  Fine  Arts,  Theatre,  Architecture,  and  Music.  Together  these  programs 
offer  our  region's  visitors  a  tremendously  diverse  array  of  programs  and  events. 

Andrea  L.  Rich 

President  and  Director 

Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art 


SPONSOR'S  STATEMENT 


The  S.  Mark  Taper  Foundation  takes  great  pride  in  partnering  with  the  Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of 
Art  as  primary  sponsor  of  Made  in  California:  Art,  Image,  and  Identity,  1900-2000.  Sharing  this  millennial 
exhibition  with  the  residents  of  California  and  visitors  to  our  state  represents  a  profound  fulfillment  of 
the  Foundation's  mission  to  enhance  the  quality  of  people's  lives. 

The  broad  scope  of  this  exhibition,  the  largest  in  lacma's  history,  illuminates  California's  evolving 
popular  image  and  its  rich  and  varied  contributions  to  the  arts  throughout  the  past  one  hundred  years. 
The  California  image  as  depicted  in  an  enormous  range  of  art  and  cultural  documentation — from  paint- 
ings, prints,  literature,  architectural  drawings,  photography,  decorative  arts,  film,  and  music  to  fashion, 
posters,  magazines,  and  tourist  brochures — has  influenced  and  inspired  people  worldwide.  Made  in 
California  brings  together  this  astonishing  wealth  of  images  in  a  coherent  context  for  the  enlightenment 
of  museum  visitors. 

The  works  that  have  been  selected  all  relate  directly  to  the  central  theme  of  the  exhibition:  how  the 
arts  have  shaped,  promoted,  complicated,  and  challenged  popular  conceptions  of  California  over  the 
course  of  the  twentieth  century.  A  team  of  more  than  a  dozen  lac  ma  curators  and  educators  has  worked 
together  for  more  than  six  years  to  create  the  exhibition,  and  they  deserve  our  warmest  congratulations 
for  this  unprecedented  effort  and  the  exceptional  result. 

The  start  of  a  new  century  is  an  appropriate  time  to  pay  tribute  to  the  culture  of  our  great  state. 
Because  my  father  was,  since  the  1950s,  one  of  the  most  significant  developers  of  the  state  of  California, 
I  feel  it  most  fitting  that  his  foundation  should  collaborate  with  lacma  on  this  extraordinary  exhibition. 
The  S.  Mark  Taper  Foundation,  a  private  family  foundation  founded  in  1989,  is  pleased  to  join  the 
museum  in  making  Made  in  California  possible.  In  keeping  with  the  Foundation's  traditions,  we  chose 
Made  in  California  as  a  project  worthy  of  our  support. 

All  of  us  at  the  S.  Mark  Taper  Foundation  look  forward  to  sharing  these  myriad  artworks  as  well 
as  lacma's  incisive  scholarship  with  museum  visitors  from  across  the  state  and  around  the  world. 
I  hope  that  you  find  Made  in  California  both  enjoyable  and  thought  provoking. 

Janice  Taper  Lazarof 

President 

S.  Mark  Taper  Foundation 


MAMDi:  IN  CALIFORNIA 
ART,  IMAGE,  AND   IDENTITY 

1900-20G0 


Note  to  the  reader 

Lenders  of  posters,  brochures,  and  other 
ephemeral  material  in  the  exhibition  are 
noted  in  the  illustration  captions. 

Lenders  of  artworks  in  the  exhibition 
are  listed  in  the  checklist  (pp. 281-324). 

Artworks  not  in  the  exhibition  are  indi- 
cated by  a  bullet  (•). 


Alexis  Smith 

Sea  of  Tranquility,  1982, 
mixed-media  collage 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  MAKING  OF  MA\DI£  IN  CALIFORNIA 


Stephanie  Barron 


In  1994  a  group  of  curators  at  the  Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art  came  together  to  discuss  an 
exhibition  that  would  explore  the  great  richness  and  diversity  of  California  art  in  the  twentieth 
century.  Conceived  collaboratively  by  members  of  nine  different  LACMA  departments,'  the  exhibition 
that  developed  over  the  next  several  years,  Made  in  California:  Art,  Image,  and  Identity,  1900-2000, 
would  not  be  a  traditional  art  historical  survey,  nor  would  it  attempt  to  establish  a  new  canon  or 
identify  certain  types  of  artistic  production  as  distinctively  "Californian."  Rother,  it  would  investigate 
the  relationship  of  art  to  the  image  of  California  and  to  the  region's  social  and  political  history. 

Our  goal  was  to  avoid  the  boosterism  that  has  often  characterized  surveys  of  California  art,  which  have 

tended  to  emphasize  Utopian  or  dystopic  extremes,  and  to  illuminate,  against  the  backdrop  of  historical 

events  that  have  impacted  artistic  production,  the  competing  interests  and  ideologies  that  informed  the 

arts  and  shaped  popular  conceptions  of  the  state  in  the  twentieth  century. 

Made  in  California  is  the  largest  and  most  complex  exhibition  ever  mounted  at  lacma,  comprising 

more  than  1,200  artworks,  ephemera,  and  other  cultural  artifacts  that  reflect  the  increasingly  disparate 

images  of  the  state  produced  and  circulated  from  1900  to  2000.  From  vast,  sweeping  poppy  fields  to 

crowded  suburban  beaches,  from  Hollywood  to  Yosemite  Valley,  from  beatnik  San  Francisco  to  a  disaster- 
prone  Los  Angeles,  the  twentieth-century  imagination  was  infused  with  popular  iconography  derived 

from  California.  Yet  there  was  never  a  single,  prevailing  image  of  the  state.  There  are  and  have  been,  in 

fact,  many  Californias,  multiple  perceptions  of  the  region  shaped  not  only  by  predictable  forces  such  as 

the  tourist  or  real  estate  industries  but  also  by  artists  who  at  times  reinforced  prevailing  views  and  at 

others  complicated,  subverted,  or  refuted  them.  The  title  of  the  exhibition  and  accompanying  catalogue 

thus  refers  not  simply  to  art  produced  in  California  but  to  work  that  bears  the  imprint  of  or  projects 

one  of  the  many  images  of  the  state. 

In  view  of  the  diversity — whether  hidden  or  acknowledged — that  has  always  defined  the 

California  experience,  questions  about  the  exhibition's  audience  and  voice  surfaced  at  an  early  stage. 

In  the  census  of  1870,  half  of  the  population  of  San  Francisco  was  shown  to  be  foreign  born.  Today  both 

San  Francisco  and  Los  Angeles — a  city  more  than  75  percent  Anglo  just  twenty-five  years  ago — are  more 

than  50  percent  non-Anglo.  Now  the  major  nonwhite  urban  center  in  the  United  States,  Los  Angeles 

represents  a  new  type  of  city,  what  Charles  Jencks  refers  to  as  a  "heteropolis"  and  Edward  Soja  calls  a 

contemporary  cosmopolis.^  Some  ninety  languages  are  spoken  within  its  more  than  400-square-mile  city 

limits.  Immigrants  to  California  from  around  the  world  have  created  a  more  diverse  population  than 

ever  before.  And  as  groups  that  were  previously  in  the  minority  have  grown,  the  state's  identity  has  been 

profoundly  altered.  This  ethnic  and  cultural  diversity  is  key  to  any  effort  to  review  artistic  production 

in  California. 


Stephanie  Barron     iNTRODUCTiOh 


With  such  diversity  in  mind,  what  can  it  mean  to  try  to  capture  a  history  of  the  image  of 
Cahfornia  during  the  past  one  hundred  years?  Consider  these  two  observations:  "Every  museum  exhibi- 
tion, whatever  its  overt  subject,  inevitably  draws  on  the  curatorial  assumptions  and  resources  of  the  peo- 
ple who  make  it."  And:  "Visitors  can  deduce  from  their  experience  what  we,  the  producers  of  exhibitions, 
think  and  feel  about  them — even  if  we  have  not  fully  articulated  those  thoughts  to  ourselves."'  Both 
statements  underscore  the  obligation  of  exhibition  organizers  to  reflect  carefully  on  the  message  they 
wish  to  convey  and  its  intended  audience.  In  the  last  two  decades,  with  the  spectacular  growth  of  muse- 
ums and  museum  attendance,  scholars  have  sought  to  examine  more  thoroughly  the  role  of  museums 
in  our  society.  Even  at  the  most  basic  level  of  the  selection,  arrangement,  and  juxtaposition  of  objects, 
the  strategies  adopted  by  museum  curators  directly  affect  an  audience's  interpretation  of  the  material  on 
display.  Curators  have  a  responsibility,  then,  to  convey  a  clearly  articulated  point  of  view.  As  Carol 
Duncan  has  noted,  exhibitions  allow  communities  to  examine  old  truths  and  search  for  new  ones.  They 
become  the  center  of  a  process  in  which  past  and  future  intersect."  Our  initial  question  therefore  implies 
a  number  of  others:  Whose  California?  What  image?  Which  history? 

Since  their  advent  in  the  late  eighteenth  century,  museums  have  been  treasured  as  harbors  of  a  sense  of 
time  and  space  that  sets  them  apart  from  the  bustle  of  the  outside  world.  They  have  been  revered,  in  fact, 
as  places  similar  to  churches,  with  the  power  to  transform,  cure,  or  uplift  the  soul.^  Museums  at  the 
beginning  of  the  twenty-first  century,  however,  are  at  an  unusual  crossroads.  Never  before  has  there  been 
such  interest  in  visiting  them.  Newspapers  routinely  report  that  more  people  visit  special  exhibitions 
than  go  to  sporting  events.  Surveys  show  furthermore  that  those  who  visit  museums  come  in  search 
of  connections  between  the  art  on  display  and  their  own  lives.'  And  yet  most  museums  still  present  art 
in  hushed,  elegant  galleries,  contemplative  spaces  that  are  often  disconnected  from  everyday  experience 
and  may  even  appear  elitist  or  intimidating. 

In  the  late  1970s,  beginning  with  the  Centre  Georges  Pompidou  in  Paris,  with  its  transparent 
facade,  large  urban  square,  and  popular  five-story  escalators  leading  to  spectacular  views  of  the  city, 
museum  architecture  began  to  be  employed  to  break  down  the  rarefied  image  of  traditional  art  museums. 
Yet  while  museum  architecture  has  certainly  been  transformed  in  the  past  twenty-five  years,  accounting 
for  some  of  the  most  exciting  buildings  of  our  time,  what  lies  inside  and  how  it  is  presented  have 
changed  little  in  the  last  century.  Within  art  museums,  as  debate  continues  about  the  appropriate  balance 
between  education  and  entertainment,  museum  directors,  curators,  and  educators  are  searching  for 
strategies  of  presentation — encompassing  thematic  as  well  as  chronological  organizational  modes — that 
will  engage  new  audiences.  "Compelling  stories  and  opportunities  that  manage  to  engage  all  the  senses 
are  the  experiences  that  succeed  in  attracting  new  and  returning  visitors,"  a  recent  study  claims.' 

Academic  discourse  on  installations  of  museum  permanent  collections  and  special  or  temporary 
exhibitions  has  called  into  question  presentation  strategies  and  focused  discussion  on  issues  of  curatorial 
voice  and  intended  audience,  particularly  in  relation  to  class,  gender,  and  race.*  Author  Alan  Wallach 
claims,  however,  that  the  revisionism  that  has  transformed  much  of  art  history  in  the  universities  in  the 
past  generation  has  had  little  impact  on  art  museums  and  their  audiences.  Despite  the  difficulty  of  rais- 
ing funds  for  shows  that  confront  or  question  accepted  canons,  Wallach  argues  for  the  need  to  mount 
revisionist  exhibitions.  By  exposing  museum-going  audiences  to  exhibitions  that  present  art  in  relation 


Anne  W.  Brigman 

The  Lone  Pine,  cA% 
gelatin-silver  print 


Richard  Diebenkorn 

free\Nay  and  Aqueduct, 
1957,  oil  on  canvas 


Stephanie  Barron 


to  its  social,  political,  and  historical  context,  the  public  will  grow  to  value  artworks  as  more  than  timeless, 
transcendent,  or  universal  objects  of  beauty  that  speak  for  themselves.'  Often  such  shows  inspire  fierce 
critical  and  public  debate.  In  1991  the  National  Museum  of  American  Art  mounted  The  West  as  America,^' 
a  critical  historical  approach  to  representations  of  nineteenth-century  America.  Rather  than  merely 
celebrating  its  subject,  the  exhibition  explored,  according  to  museum  director  Elizabeth  Broun,  the 
intentions  of  artists  and  their  patrons  in  the  context  of  the  history  of  westward  expansion,  unearthing 
a  deeper,  more  troubling  story  that  poses  questions  for  American  society  today." 

The  West  as  America  generated  a  firestorm  of  criticism  for  daring  to  subject  cherished  myths  to 
critical  scrutiny,  and  it  was  attacked  for  what  was  seen  by  some  as  an  aggressive  lack  of  objectivity.  Yet 
after  nearly  a  decade  of  reflection,  we  can  see  that  the  exhibition  was  important  for  at  least  two  reasons: 
By  critically  examining  images  long  familiar  to  generations  of  Americans,  it  effectively  countered  the  per- 
ception of  museums  as  nothing  more  than  places  of  inspiration  or  repositories  of  beauty  isolated  from 
the  everyday  world;  and  it  ushered  in  a  decade  of  debate  on  the  meaning  and  interpretation  of  western 
American  art.  In  its  examination  of  image  and  identity  and  its  reassessment  of  traditional  perspectives. 
Made  in  California  draws  upon  the  example  set  by  The  West  as  America,  especially  with  regard  to  lessons 
learned  about  how  best  to  frame  questions  and  raise  interpretative  issues  for  a  broad  public.'^ 

Despite  the  reaction  caused  by  such  exhibitions,  museums  have  shown  a  growing  interest  in 
new  strategies  of  interpretation.  Exhibitions  have  begun  to  appear  that  locate  works  of  art  in  relation  to 
social  and  historical  conditions;  explore  issues  of  audience  and  reception;  consider  the  roles  of  the  art 
market,  curatorial  taste,  and  collecting  practices;  invite  artists  to  interpret  or  curate  works  by  other 
artists;  examine  the  intersection  of  art,  politics,  and  national  identity;  and  present  permanent  collections 
through  thematic  lenses.'^ 

These  are  some  of  the  approaches  that  informed  the  conceptualization  of  Made  in  CaUfornia. 
From  our  earliest  discussions  of  the  project,  a  fundamental  decision  was  made  that  the  exhibition  should 
not  be  a  succession  of  "greatest  hits"  of  California  art.  In  general,  questions  of  cultural  or  historical 
relevance  took  precedence  over  issues  of  aesthetic  innovation,  a  strategy  that  necessarily  resulted  in  the 
exclusion  of  certain  artists  or  works  by  which  a  given  artist  is  usually  known.  The  exhibition  is  divided 
into  five  sections,  each  covering  twenty  years  and  organized  thematically  rather  than  according  to  formal 
categories.  Each  section  freely  mixes  paintings,  prints,  sculpture,  decorative  art,  costumes,  and  photog- 
raphy, along  with  examples  of  material  culture — tourist  brochures,  labor  pamphlets,  rock  posters,  and 
periodicals.  Additionally,  twenty-four  media  stations  were  commissioned,  providing  visitors  with 
archival  film  footage,  poetry  recordings,  examples  of  popular  music,  and  clips  from  Hollywood  films. 
Three  of  the  sections  contain  lifestyle  environments,  joining  together  examples  of  furniture,  design,  and 
architecture.  The  overriding  aim  of  Made  in  California  is  to  situate  art  making  within  the  broader  con- 
text of  image  making  and,  more  specifically,  the  creation  of  California's  image  in  the  twentieth  century. 
Many  familiar  images — a  glamorous  Hollywood,  a  beachfront  or  agricultural  paradise,  a  suburban 
Utopia — have  prevailed  in  the  popular  imagination  not  only  in  the  United  States  but  around  the  world. 
(Indeed,  California,  especially  as  the  home  of  a  global  film  industry,  may  arguably  be  the  site  in  the 
twentieth  century  in  which  image  permanently  detached  itself  from  reality.)  Made  in  California  examines 
the  significant  role  of  the  arts  in  generating,  shaping,  and  disseminating  such  popular  images  while 
presenting  works  that  corroborate,  challenge,  complicate,  or  refute  them.  Conflicting  images  have 


Stephanie  Barron 


always  been  present;  our  aim  has  been  to  widen  the  estabhshed  discourse  to  include  them.  In  so  doing, 
Made  in  California  questions  the  canon  of  images  and  ideas  long  associated  with  the  art  of  California 
and  encourages  a  critical  examination  of  recent  history. 

A  similar  approach  has  governed  the  organization  of  the  main  body  of  the  catalogue:  The  first 
three  sections,  written  by  Exhibition  Associate  Sheri  Bernstein,  cover  the  years  1900  to  i960.  Sections  4 
and  5  were  written  by  Howard  Fox,  Curator  of  Modern  and  Contemporary  Art,  and  cover  the  years  i960 
to  2000.  To  set  the  stage  for  the  catalogue  sections,  geographer  Michael  Dear  has  provided  a  synoptic 
social  history  that  charts  the  confluences  and  conflicts  of  the  varied  peoples  whose  destinies  have  contin- 
ually forged  and  reconfigured  the  California  Dream.  Closing  the  volume,  noted  essayist  Richard  Rodriguez 
has  contributed  a  uniquely  personal  vision  of  the  paradoxical  state  of  mind  we  know  as  California. 

Made  in  California  differs  methodologically  from  most  previous  exhibitions  that  have  attempted 
to  address  California  art,  but  it  has  benefited  from  the  scholarship  that  preceded  it.  There  are,  for 
example,  a  number  of  key  books  that  have  laid  the  art  historical  groundwork  for  our  project  in  terms 
of  California  art  scholarship.  Although  controversial  upon  publication  in  1974,  Peter  Plagens's  Sunshine 
Muse:  Contemporary  Art  on  the  West  Coast  was  the  first  attempt  at  a  history  of  modern  art  in  the  region.'" 
In  1985  Thomas  Albright  published  his  comprehensive  study  Art  in  the  San  Francisco  Bay  Area,  1945-1980, 
which  followed  the  unique  development  of  Bay  Area  figuration.  Pop,  Funk,  Conceptualism,  realism, 
and  other  movements.  Richard  Candida  Smith's  Utopia  and  Dissent:  Art,  Poetry,  and  Politics  in  California 
(1995)  charted  a  history  of  ideas  spawned  by  California's  art  and  poetry  movements  from  1925  to  the 
mid-1970s  and  explored  their  embodiment  in  mainstream  American  culture.  For  his  1996  publication 
On  the  Edge  of  America:  California  Modernist  Art,  1900-1950,  Paul  Karlstrom  assembled  essays  by  several 
authors  who  collectively  sought  to  challenge  the  familiar  association  of  California  with  popular  culture 
and  Hollywood,  tracing  a  history  of  regional  California  art  in  a  variety  of  media  in  the  context  of  a  larger 
modernist  framework. 

Most  exhibitions  that  have  dealt  with  California  art  of  the  last  century  have  been  organized 
according  to  geography  (California,  Los  Angeles,  the  Bay  Area);  art  historical  movements  (California 
Impressionism,  Bay  Area  Conceptualism,  Bay  Area  figuration);  medium  (assemblage,  ceramics,  print- 
making);  or  subject  (landscape,  the  Gold  Rush,  women  painters).  Most  were  boosterist,  and  nearly  all 
were  devoted  solely  to  examples  of  fine  art.  By  the  middle  of  the  twentieth  century,  with  pride  in 
American  as  opposed  to  European  art,  exhibition  organizers  began  to  identify  aspects  of  California  art 
that  set  it  apart  from  that  of  New  York.  Exhibitions  mounted  for  export  often  focused  on  geography; 
those  intended  for  a  regional  audience  could  perhaps  rely  more  frequently  on  individual  artists.  In  either 
case,  however,  organizers  typically  selected  works  of  art  according  to  formal  or  geographic  principles, 
paying  scant  attention  to  artists  working  with  political  or  socially  conscious  themes.  Beginning  in  the 
1960s,  museums  outside  California  began  to  host  exhibitions  of  work  by  emerging  West  Coast  artists, 
including,  for  example,  Fifty  California  Artists  (1962),  organized  by  the  San  Francisco  Museum  of 
Modern  Art  (sfmoma)  and  shown  at  the  Whitney  Museum  of  American  Art,'^  and  Ten  from  Los  Angeles 
(1966),  organized  for  the  Seattle  Art  Museum  by  John  Coplans,  then  director  of  the  art  gallery  at  the 
University  of  California,  Irvine.  The  latter  featured  artists  who  shared  an  affinity  for  shiny,  elegant  sur- 
faces, including  Billy  Al  Bengston,  Tony  DeLap,  Craig  Kauffman,  and  others,  many  of  whom  showed  at 
the  Ferus  Gallery.  In  1971  London's  Hayward  Gallery  hosted  11  Los  Angeles  Artists,  organized  by  Maurice 


Los  Angeles  souvenir, 
1957.  LentbyJimHeiman 


LOST  ANGEUS 

SM06 


California:  America's 
Vacation  Land,  poster 
produced  by  New  /ork 
Central  Lines,  with 
illustration  by  Jon  0. 
Brubaker,  c.  1930.  Lent  by 
Steve  Turner  Gallery, 
Beverly  Hills 


Tuchman  and  Jane  Livingston.  Within  the  state,  exhibition  activity  increased  significantly  in  the  1970s. 
The  Oakland  Museum  of  California  has  organized  a  number  of  formative  exhibitions  on  California  art  in 
a  broad  range  of  media."  In  the  1980s  and  1990s,  the  Laguna  Art  Museum  organized  and  hosted  some 
two  dozen  exhibitions  devoted  to  either  individual  California  artists  or  particular  aspects  of  artistic  activ- 
ity in  California.  These  and  other  exhibitions  in  the  past  twenty-five  years  have  greatly  increased  our 
knowledge  of  artists  in  California.  And  yet  it  may  be  argued  that  because  much  of  this  scholarship  focused 
on  the  project  of  validation,  it  lagged  significantly  in  efforts  to  incorporate  a  multidisciplinary  approach 
that  would  include,  for  example,  political  and  social  history,  gender  studies,  and  cultural  studies. 

More  recently,  a  tendency  has  emerged  to  present  West  Coast  art  as  a  contrast  in  stark  opposites: 
blight  and  bounty,  abundance  and  drought,  the  golden  and  the  noir.'^  A  duality  has  been  established 
(admittedly  with  precedents  earlier  in  the  century  in  popular  literature  and  film)  that  may  reflect,  as 
Norman  Klein  suggests,  nothing  more  than  equally  mythical  counterparts  promoted  by  the  white  middle- 
class  for  its  own  consumption.'*  In  the  past  twenty  years,  this  Edenic/dystopic  dualism  has  been  elevated 
to  heroic  proportions  in  literature,  film,  and  art.  Images  from  Ridley  Scott's  Blade  Runner  (1982),  for 
example,  became  a  widely  accepted  stylistic  shorthand  for  envisioning  the  future  of  cities  among  urban- 
ists  and  art  and  architecture  critics.  A  decade  later,  curator  Paul  Schimmel  presented  Helter  Skelter  (1992) 
at  the  Museum  of  Contemporary  Art,  Los  Angeles,  calling  out  a  group  of  artists,  including  Chris  Burden, 
Victor  Estrada,  Llyn  Foulkes,  Mike  Kelley,  Paul  McCarthy,  Manuel  Ocampo,  Raymond  Pettibon,  Lari 
Pittman,  Charles  Ray,  and  Nancy  Rubins,  whose  provocative  styles  became  emblematic  of  Los  Angeles  in 
the  1990s.  Presented  in  opposition  to  the  often  bright,  beautiful,  hedonistic  Los  Angeles  art  characterized 
by  Plagens  in  Sunshine  Muse,  the  show  offered  another  construct  in  its  place  that  was  largely  accusatory 
and  dark.  The  1998  traveling  exhibition  Sunshine  and  Noir:  Art  in  L.A.,  1960-1997,  organized  by  Lars 
Nittve  and  Helle  Crenzien  at  the  Louisiana  Museum  of  Modern  Art  in  Humlebaek,  Denmark,  explicitly 
followed  this  dualistic  approach. 

A  number  of  other  important  exhibitions  have  been  devoted  to  tracing  movements  and  "isms" 
in  California  art  history.  As  noted  above,  these  often  focused  on  differences  between  California  artists 
and  their  East  Coast  or  European  confreres.  Beginning  in  the  mid-1970s,  Henry  Hopkins,  then  director 
of  SFMOMA,  presided  over  several  exhibitions  devoted  to  aspects  of  California  art,  including  his  major 
survey  show.  Painting  and  Sculpture  in  California:  The  Modern  Era  (1977),''  which  was  organized  stylisti- 
cally and  included  200  artists  and  340  works  of  art.  Although  the  exhibition  was  ambitious  in  scope, 
covering  seventy-five  years  of  California  art  history,  there  was  a  noted  lack  of  feminist,  Chicano,  and 
African  American  artists  in  the  show,  and  of  the  200  artists  included,  182  were  men.  In  1981  Suzanne 
Foley's  Space,  Time,  Sound:  Conceptual  Art  in  the  San  Francisco  Bay  Area:  The  1970s  for  sfmoma  identi- 
fied Bay  Area  Conceptualism  as  based  more  on  personal  experience  than  its  New  York  counterpart. 
Foley  also  focused  on  centers  of  production:  alternative  spaces,  university  galleries,  periodicals,  and 
theaters.  Two  exhibitions.  Bay  Area  Figurative  Art  (1989),  organized  by  Caroline  Jones  for  sfmoma,  and 
The  San  Francisco  School  of  Abstract  Expressionism  (1996),  organized  by  Susan  Landauer  for  the  Laguna 
Art  Museum,  featured  major  and  less  well-known  figures,  grouped  stylistically,  and  touched  on  the 
role  of  art  schools  in  their  work  and  their  relationships  to  politics  and  social  history.^"  Paul  Karlstrom 
and  Susan  Ehrlich's  Turning  the  Tide:  Early  Los  Angeles  Modernists,  1920-1956  for  the  Santa  Barbara  Art 
Museum  (1990)  and  Ehrlich's  Pacific  Dreams:  Currents  of  Surrealism  and  Fantasy  in  California  Art, 


Stephanie  Barron 


1934-1957  for  the  Armand  Hammer  Museum  of  Art  and  Cultural  Center  at  ucla  (1995)  sought  to  exam- 
ine what  sets  California  modernism  and  California  Surrealism  apart  from  European  models.  Together 
these  exhibitions  did  much  to  legitimize  specific  art  movements  within  California  for  a  national  and 
international  audience. 

Museum  exhibitions  organized  around  a  particular  medium  have  tended  to  emphasize  fields  in 
which  California  artists  have  been  leaders,  especially  ceramics,  photography,  printmaking,  and  the  assem- 
blage tradition.  Led  by  Peter  Voulkos  in  Los  Angeles  in  the  1950s,  and  Robert  Arneson  and  others  in  the 
Bay  Area  in  the  1960s,  ceramists  transformed  their  art  by  creating  massive  sculptural  vessels  using  fired 
clay.^'  Their  work  made  ceramics  a  defining  medium  in  postwar  California  art  and  was  included  in 
numerous  exhibitions  in  the  1960s,  among  them  solo  shows  at  lacma  featuring  Voulkos  (1965)  and 
John  Mason  (1966)."  Printmaking  workshops  in  California,  including  Tamarind,  Gemini  G.E.L.,  Cirrus 
Editions,  Crown  Point  Press,  and  Self-Help  Graphics,  have  pioneered  the  medium  in  the  postwar  era. 
Cirrus  alone  among  them  has  concentrated  on  the  work  of  California  artists;  in  1995  this  work  was  sur- 
veyed for  LACMA  by  curator  Bruce  Davis."  Proof:  Los  Angeles  Art  and  Photography,  1960-1980,  organized 
by  Charles  Desmarais  for  the  Laguna  Art  Museum  in  1992,  presented  a  group  of  artists  whose  influential 
work  blurred  the  boundaries  between  photography  and  other  media.  In  1994,  the  J.  Paul  Getty  Museum 
and  the  Huntington  Library  and  Art  Collections  jointly  mounted  PictoriaUsm  in  California:  1900-1940, 
organized  by  Michael  G.  Wilson,  which  explored  the  unique  contributions  of  California  photographers 
working  in  the  Pictorialist  idiom.  Additionally,  California  assemblage  artists,  whose  work  is  strongly 
Hnked  to  the  Dada  tradition,  have  been  the  subject  of  a  number  of  exhibitions.^"  Exhibitions  of  artwork 
in  these  and  other  media  served  to  acquaint  a  larger  audience  with  a  number  of  aesthetic  innovations 
specific  to  California. 

Like  Made  in  California,  the  most  recent  exhibitions  have  tended  to  be  organized  around  particu- 
lar themes.  They  have  embraced  a  wide  range  of  artists,  and  sought  to  find  an  appropriate  context  for 
their  work.  The  Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco's  exhibition  Facing  Eden:  100  Years  of  Landscape  Art 
in  the  Bay  Area  (1995),  organized  by  Steven  Nash,  was  a  multidisciplinary  show  that  included  painters, 
sculptors,  photographers,  landscape  architects,  and  environmental  artists.  Issues  of  gender  grounded 
Patricia  Trenton's  Independent  Spirits:  Women  Painters  of  the  American  West,  1890-1945  (1995).  In  1999, 
at  the  Iris  and  B.  Gerald  Cantor  Center  at  Stanford  University,  Pacific  Arcadia:  Images  of  California, 
1600-1915  charted  an  image  of  a  California  in  which  economic  bliss  could  be  achieved  in  a  spectacular 
natural  setting.  In  the  catalogue  to  the  exhibition,  Claire  Perry  investigated  how  and  why  the  familiar 
vision  of  California  as  a  land  of  promise  was  developed  and  marketed  to  tourists  and  residents.  She 
introduced  paintings,  drawings,  and  photographs  alongside  popular  Currier  and  Ives  lithographs,  maps, 
printed  ephemera,  and  book  and  newspaper  illustrations.  As  part  of  an  investigation  into  how  the  can- 
vases and  photographs  of  Carleton  E.  Watkins,  Arnold  Genthe,  Albert  Bierstadt,  William  Hahn,  and 
James  Walker  functioned  within  a  network  of  promotional  material,  Pacific  Arcadia  included  guidebooks, 
railroad  brochures,  travel  posters,  sermons,  and  songs.  This  sensitive  presentation  of  fine  art  and  material 
culture  anticipates  the  current  exhibition. 


Edward  Ruscha 

Burning  Gas  Station, 
1965-66,  oil  on  canvas 


Art  historical  debate  has  increasingly  centered  on  the  idea  of  a  body  of  art  generally  recognized  as  "the 
canon"  and  those  who  have  been  excluded  from  it  through  political  and  social  domination.  Edward  Said, 
Homi  Bhabha,  James  Clifford,  and  others  working  in  the  discipline  of  cultural  studies  have  raised  ques- 
tions on  topics  such  as  power,  class,  ethnicity,  and  identity  and  their  impact  on  the  creation  and  reception 
of  works  of  art.  The  exploration  and  depiction  of  the  western  landscape  and  its  relationship  to  American 
history  have  been  the  subject  of  a  number  of  provocative  studies  in  the  past  decade.  Anne  Hyde,  for 
example,  has  argued  that  such  images  played  an  instrumental  role  in  the  building  of  American  nationalism, 

fueling  railroad  expansion  and  westward  tourism." 
If  here  the  canon  represents  traditional  images  of 
California,  our  goal  is  not  to  remove  it  but  rather  to 
question  it  by  presenting  multiple  points  of  view. 
While  tracing  mainstream  images  of  the  state.  Made 
in  California  considers  alternative  conceptions,  often 
produced  by  minorities,  that  challenge  the  popular 
ones.  In  this  effort  to  uncover  the  disparate  ways  in 
which  artists  have  produced  and  responded  to  popular 
images  of  California  in  the  twentieth  century — and 
the  ways  in  which  these  images  have  been  used  by 
others — the  exhibition  weaves  together  examples  of 
fine  art  (works  intended  primarily  for  museum  and 
gallery  presentation)  and  images  that  appeared  in 
advertisements  and  promotional  material,  newspapers, 
magazine  articles,  posters,  films,  postcards,  popular 
music,  and  documentary  photographs.  This  contextual 
approach  will,  we  hope,  diminish  or  destabilize  the 
conventional  hierarchies,  thereby  expanding  the  dia- 
logue about  California  and  the  art  it  has  produced. 
While  each  of  the  five  main  sections  of  Made 
in  California  contains  topics  related  to  a  given  twenty-year  period — Hollywood  glamour,  spirituality, 
subcultures  and  countercultures,  beach  and  car  culture,  to  name  a  few — two  overriding  themes  prevail 
throughout:  the  landscape,  including  both  the  natural  and  the  built  environment,  and  the  complex 
relationship  California  continues  to  have  with  the  cultures  of  its  two  neighbors,  Latin  America  and  Asia. 

Section  i,  1900-1920,  examines  how  paintings,  prints,  and  photographs,  as  well  as  images  circu- 
lated on  postcards,  travel  brochures,  periodicals,  orange-crate  labels,  and  in  promotional  films,  created 
a  vision  of  a  largely  Edenic,  abundant  California,  encouraging  migration  and  tourism,  much  of  it  from 
the  white  middle-class  Midwest.  The  myth  of  the  virgin  land,  unspoiled  by  modern  life,  was  for  the 
most  part  the  prevailing  image.  Early  landscapes,  whether  inland  or  coastal  scenes,  rarely  included 
human  figures;  as  such  they  are  unspoiled  by  economic  considerations,  either  of  labor  or  of  ownership. 
This  homogeneous  image  of  the  California  landscape  was  shared  by  boosters  of  tourism,  developers,  and 
artists,  many  of  whom  were  themselves  new  arrivals  hired  by  the  tourist  industry  (railroads,  hotels, 
chambers  of  commerce)  to  promote  California. 


David  Hockney 

Mulholland  Drive,  The 
Road  to  the  Studio, 
1980,  acrylic  on  canvas. 
Los  Angeles  County 
Museum  of  Art 


Stephanie  Barron 


In  the  early  years  of  the  century,  images  of  Cahfornia  frequently  exploited  a  widespread  but  care- 
fully sanitized  interest  in  Native  American  and  immigrant  cultures.  A  dominant  theme  was  the  state's 
Spanish  mission  past,  romanticized  in  art,  literature,  theater,  architecture,  furniture,  clothing  design,  and 
popular  songs.  Tonalist  painters  and  Pictorialist  photographers,  for  example,  represented  the  missions 
in  wistful  scenes  that  gave  no  hint  of  the  devastating  treatment  of  Native  Americans  by  Spaniards  and 
Anglos.  The  Chinatowns  of  San  Francisco,  Los  Angeles,  and  smaller  cities  also  became  the  subject  of  an 
Anglo  fascination  that  frequently  characterized  the  Chinese  as  exotic  and  old-fashioned.  At  the  same 
time,  in  the  era  of  the  Asiatic  Exclusion  League,  the  Chinese  Exclusionary  Act,  and  aggression  on  the 
part  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  Chinese  populations  were  subject  to  attacks  by  xenophobic 
Americans.  Rarely  did  artists  show  Anglos  and  Chinese  interacting  or  depict  the  Chinese  engaged  in 
modern,  productive  activities. 

Section  2, 1920-1940,  reveals  pronounced  shifts  in  popular  conceptions  of  the  state.  The  1920s 
are  characterized  by  increased  tourism,  migration,  and  expansion  brought  about  by  a  boom  economy. 
With  the  rapid  rise  of  the  automobile,  tourists  were  able  to  travel  to  the  newly  promoted  California 
desert,  captured  by  photographers  who  aestheticized  its  desolate  beauty.  Images  of  rural  life  were  sold 
to  art  collectors,  and  idyllic  farms  were  depicted  in  agribusiness  publications.  The  virgin  landscapes  of 
earlier  decades  gave  way  to  agrarian  scenes  in  which  laborers — the  migrants  who  tilled  the  land  and 
picked  the  crops — at  times  appeared  in  the  work  of  painters  and  photographers.  Such  cultivated  land- 
scapes were  still  picturesque  and  often  showed  no  signs  of  burgeoning  agribusiness  and  farming  con- 
glomerates. At  the  same  time,  a  new  type  of  image  began  to  emerge  in  which  California  was  represented 
as  a  land  of  newly  constructed  bridges,  dams,  and  oil  rigs.  A  number  of  artists  also  began  to  depict  a 
thriving  aviation  industry. 

In  the  1920s  and  1930s,  the  earlier  cohesive  image  of  California  was  shaken  by  unrest  that  often 
focused  on  Latin  and  Asian  immigrants,  many  of  whom  were  migrant  laborers  working  in  agriculture. 
Artists,  writers,  and  musicians  aligned  themselves  with  the  migrant  laborers  and  sympathetically  docu- 
mented their  working  conditions.  Fueled  by  Roosevelt's  Pan-Americanism,  Californians  responded  with 
initial  enthusiasm,  and  commissions  were  given  to  the  Mexican  muralists  who  had  temporarily  migrated 
northward,  including  Diego  Rivera  and  David  Alfaro  Siqueiros.  There  was  a  general  vogue  for  Latin 
American  themes  throughout  the  arts,  from  painting  and  ceramics  to  Mayan  Revival  architecture. 

During  the  Depression  in  the  1930s,  California  struggled  with  the  rest  of  the  nation  against 
unemployment,  farm  foreclosures,  massive  debt,  and  a  rising  distrust  of  foreigners.  While  promotion  of 
an  Edenic  California  persisted,  new  images  celebrated  growth  and  modernism  but  also  suggested  the  rise 
of  urban  problems.  If,  as  W.  J.  T.  Mitchell  suggests,^'  we  think  of  attitudes  toward  landscape  as  part  of  a 
process  by  which  social  and  subjective  identities  are  formed,  images  of  California  can  be  seen  here  to 
alternate  between  capitalist  boosterism  and  socialist  criticism.  More  often  than  not,  idyllic  images  were 
challenged  by  the  realities  of  newspaper  headlines. 

With  the  Depression,  a  new  kind  of  migration  swelled  California's  population,  as  refugees  from 
the  Dust  Bowl  sought  relief  in  the  Golden  State.  Haunting  portrayals  of  migrants  in  visual  and  literary 
works  would  come  to  stand  for  an  indelible  chapter  in  American  history.  Radical  artists  emerged  as  a 
significant  social  presence,  and  sympathetic  portrayals  of  urban  poverty  and  labor  strikes  appeared  with 
increasing  frequency.  During  this  time  of  widespread  deprivation,  California's  newest  industry,  motion 


Robert  Frank 

Covered  Car,  Long  Beach, 
California,  1956,  gelatin- 
silver  print 


pictures,  consolidated  its  national  and  international  audience,  feeding  an  insatiable  hunger  for  the  imag- 
ined lifestyles,  sophistication,  sensuality,  fashion,  and  glamour  of  Hollywood  and  its  stars. 

California's  role  as  a  national  force  grew  significantly  from  1940  to  i960,  the  period  covered  in 
Section  3  of  the  exhibition.  The  state  led  the  nation  in  the  wartime  production  of  aircraft  and  ships,  built 
in  large  part  by  a  labor  pool  that  migrated  from  other  states.  The  need  to  feed  a  nation  at  war  led  to 
increased  demands  on  agricultural  production,  which  were  satisfied  with  the  temporary  importation  of 
Mexican  farmworkers.  An  increase  in  racism  and  the  widespread  xenophobia  sparked  by  the  war  led  to 
local  as  well  as  national  attacks  on  various  ethnic  groups.  Thousands  of  Japanese  nationals  and  Japanese 
Americans  were  interned  as  a  result  of  Executive  Order  9066.  The  effect  of  this  mood  on  artistic  produc- 
tion was  swift.  Collectors,  museums,  and  galleries  were  rarely  interested  in  supporting  Mexican  or  Asian 
artists  in  California  during  this  period. 

In  the  years  immediately  following  the  war,  California's  image  as  a  natural  paradise  and  recre- 
ational destination  was  once  again  promoted  by  the  mass  media,  the  tourist  industry,  and  a  number  of 
artists.  Photographer  Ansel  Adams's  inspiring  images  of  Yosemite,  for  example,  were  sold  in  galleries 
and  published  in  Life  magazine;  at  the  same  time,  he  produced  commercial  work  for  corporations  such 
as  Kodak.  Other  artists  relied  upon  the  landscape  to  create  a  new  image  of  California,  in  keeping  with 
a  trend  toward  abstract  art.  Less  naturalistic  landscapes,  such  as  those  painted  by  Helen  Lundeberg, 
evoke  the  cool  minimalism  of  the  period;  others,  such  as  the  "flux"  paintings  of  Knud  Merrild,  prefigure 
the  gestural  paintings  of  the  New  York  School. 

Low-cost  housing  led  to  the  rapid  growth  of  suburban  communities,  which  in  turn  fostered  an 
increased  reliance  upon  an  ambitious  system  of  freeways  that  forever  changed  California's  landscape. 
Booster  images  of  the  built  and  natural  environment  now  coexisted  more  precariously  with  images  of 
the  darker  side  of  expansion.  Although  the  population  swelled  with  an  ethnically  heterogeneous  work- 
force, the  dominant  promotional  image  was  still  of  a  homogeneous,  white,  middle-class  population. 
Nevertheless,  with  the  emergence  of  the  anticommunist  fervor  of  the  1950s,  the  Golden  State  began  to 
be  associated  as  well  with  unconventional  and  subversive  political  activities.  Beat  artists,  writers,  and 
musicians  routinely  challenged  white  middle-class  values,  traditional  gender  roles,  and  suburban 
consumer  culture.  A  number  of  counterculture  artists  brought  aspects  of  alternative  philosophies  and 
religions  into  their  work,  and  they  were  attracted  in  particular  to  the  spiritual  beliefs  of  Zen  Buddhists 
and  Native  Americans. 

California's  popular  image  entered  the  mainstream  of  American  culture  during  the  1960s  and 
1970s,  which  form  Section  4  of  the  exhibition.  By  the  end  of  the  sixties,  beach  and  car  culture  as  well 
as  the  counterculture  had  been  absorbed  and  commodified  by  the  fashion,  tourist,  advertising,  music, 
television,  and  film  industries.  To  some  extent,  of  course,  these  industries  actually  helped  to  create 
aspects  of  these  cultures,  at  least  as  they  now  existed  in  the  national  psyche. 

Landscape  and  nature-oriented  traditions  continued,  reflecting  personal  artistic  concerns  and 
styles.  Increasingly  artists  ricocheted  between  boosterist  idealism  and  social  criticism.  Although  the  Edenic 
image  of  California  continued  to  be  celebrated,  even  in  artists'  depictions  of  freeways  and  swimming 
pools,  landscape  increasingly  came  to  signify  a  contested  territory  in  which  pollution,  environmental 
disasters,  and  monotonous  urban  sprawl  prevailed.  In  the  shadow  of  a  vast  system  of  freeways  and  a 
relatively  modest  mass  transit  system,  car  ownership  became  virtually  synonymous  with  mobility  and 


Frank  Gehry 

Model  of  the  Walt  Disney 
Concert  Hall,  Los  Angeles, 
1998,  mixed  media 


Frank  Gehry 

Drawing  of  the  Walt  Disney 
Concert  Hall,  Los  Angeles, 
1991,  ink  on  paper 


Stephanie  Barron 


individual  identity.  Cars  were  popularly  fetishized  and  adorned  with  exuberant  decorations,  often 
serving  as  symbols  of  power  and  machismo.  A  number  of  artists  shared  this  passion  and  took  pride  in 
their  motorcycles,  race  cars,  and  pickup  trucks,  later  applying  to  their  art  the  seamless  paint  finishes 
employed  by  the  automotive  industry.  New  materials  developed  in  the  aerospace  industry,  such  as  resin, 
plastic,  Rhoplex,  vacuum-coated  glass,  Plexiglas,  and  fiberglass,  were  used  to  make  slick-looking  paint- 
ings and  sculptures.  Other  artists  made  use  of  these  same  new  materials  to  explore  the  immateriality  of 
objects,  seeking  connections  to  science  and  philosophy  through  issues  of  space,  light,  and  perception. 

In  the  1960s,  art  and  politics  converged,  as  artists  engaged  the  civil  rights  movement  in  their 
work  and  turned  to  repressed  or  ignored  African  American,  Chicano,  and  feminist  histories  for  inspira- 
tion. California  gave  birth  to  the  Chicano  art  movement,  in  which  artistic,  cultural,  and  political  issues 
coalesced.  Through  posters,  performances,  and  political  action,  migrant  labor  in  California  also  gained 
a  voice.  The  movement  quickly  spread  to  other  parts  of  the  country,  as  oppressed  migrant  farmworkers 
sought  to  unionize.  Many  Chicano  artists  felt  compelled  to  use  their  cultural  and  ethnic  identity  as  the 
basis  for  their  work,  taking  part  in  actions  against  the  political  and  cultural  system.  Although  these  artists 
remained  marginalized  by  the  mainstream  art  establishment  during  the  1960s  and  into  the  1970s,  the 
issues  they  raised  concerning  identity  and  their  relationship  to  the  dominant  culture  would  dramatically 
alter  art  making  in  the  ensuing  decades.  The  national  emergence  of  art  based  on  personal  and  political 
identity,  frequently  in  nontraditional  media  such  as  installation,  film,  video,  and  performance,  took 
many  of  its  cues  from  California  artists. 

During  the  period  covered  by  Section  5, 1980-2000,  California  became  the  subject  of  international 
attention,  not  as  an  idyllic  destination  but  as  the  site  of  unpredictable  calamities  such  as  earthquakes, 
floods,  forest  fires,  aberrant  weather  patterns,  urban  riots,  police  brutality,  racial  unrest,  freeway  shoot- 
ings, gang  violence,  and  cult  killings.  In  Southern  California,  a  wave  of  dystopic  images  was  captured 
by  artists  in  the  early  nineties,  fueled  by  natural  and  man-made  disasters  that  seemed  to  occur  with 
frightening  regularity.  Mike  Davis's  City  of  Quartz  (1992)  and  Ecology  of  Fear  (1998),  along  with  the  Helter 
SAieter  exhibition  at  moca  (1992),  did  much  to  replace  earlier  beatific  views  of  Southern  California  with 
a  dark,  cynical,  and  apocalyptic  image  of  Los  Angeles  as  overdeveloped,  dysfunctional,  environmentally 
precarious,  and  filled  with  racial  and  cultural  distrust.  Hollywood  obliged  with  a  spate  of  violent  disaster 
films  set  in  Los  Angeles. 

Following  a  healthy  economic  recovery  after  the  recession  of  the  early  nineties,  California  again  appears 
to  be  viewed  as  the  land  of  the  future.  Gradually,  despite  the  vast  problems  that  remain,  the  state  has 
come  to  represent  diversity  and  multiple  perspectives,  and  cultural  and  identity  issues  have  increasingly 
preoccupied  California  artists.  Characteristic  of  national  and  international  trends,  globalization  (the 
breaking  down  of  borders)  and  particularization  (the  attention  to  specific  communities  and  the  bound- 
aries that  divide  them)  are  now  key  elements  of  artistic  production.  Artists  routinely  work  in  a  variety  of 
media,  in  which  the  traditional  divisions  between  art  and  material  culture  have  become  difficuh  to  dis- 
cern. Indeed,  in  the  arts  and  the  culture  at  large,  a  profusion  of  multiple,  competing  images  of  California 
has  finally  replaced  the  unified,  idyllic  vision  that  predominated  early  in  the  century. 


Billboard  poste 

rfor 

Sutro  Baths,  c. 

1912. 

Lent  by  Marilyn 

Bloisdell 

Collection 

Michael  C.  McMillen 

Central  Meridian,  The 
Garage,  1981,  mixed  media 


Stephanie  Barron      INTRDDUCTIQ^ 


1  The  nine  departments  included  American 
art,  costume  and  textiles,  decorative  arts, 
education,  film,  modern  and  contemporary 
art,  music,  photography,  and  prints  and 
drawings. 

2  See  Paul  Ong  and  Evelyn  Blumberg, 
"Income  and  Racial  Inequality  in  Los  Angeles," 
in  Allen  I.  Scott  and  Edward  W.  Soja,  The 
City:  Los  Angeles  and  Urban  Theory  at  the 
End  of  the  Twentieth  Century  (Berkeley  and 
Los  Angeles:  University  of  California  Press, 
1997)1  323-241  and,  in  the  same  volume, 
Edward  Soja,  "Los  Angeles,  1965-1992," 
442-60. 

3  In  Ivan  Karp  and  Steven  D.  Lavine,  eds., 
Exhibiting  Cultures:  The  Poetics  and  Politics 
of  Museum  Display  (Washington,  D.C.: 
Smithsonian  Institution  Press,  1991),  1;  and 
Elaine  Heumann  Gurian,  "Noodling  around 
with  Exhibitions,"  in  Karp  and  Lavine,  176. 

4  Carol  Duncan,  Civilizing  Rituals:  Inside 
Public  Art  Museums  (London:  Routledge, 
1995).  133-34- 

5  See,  for  example,  discussions  of  Goethe, 
Niels  von  Hoist,  and  William  Hazlitt  in 
Duncan,  Civilizing  Rituals,  14-15. 

6  Marcia  Tucker,  "Museums  Experiment 
with  New  Exhibition  Strategies,"  New  York 
Times,  Jan.  10, 1999,  sec.  2. 

7  Bonnie  Pitman,  "Muses,  Museums,  and 
Memories,"  in  the  special  "America's  Museums" 
issue  of  Daedalus  (summer  1999),  15. 

8  See,  for  example,  Karp  and  Lavine, 
Exhibiting  Cultures;  Marcia  Pointon,  Art 
Apart:  Art  Institutions  and  Ideology  across 
England  and  North  America  (Manchester: 
Manchester  University  Press,  1994);  Daniel  J. 
Sherman  and  Irit  Rogoff,  eds.,  Museum 
Culture:  Histories,  Discourses,  Spectacles 
(Minneapolis:  University  of  Minnesota  Press, 
1994);  Lynne  Cooke  and  Peter  Wollen,  eds.. 
Visual  Display:  Culture  beyond  Appearances 
(New  York:  New  Press,  1995);  Duncan, 
Civilizing  Rituals;  Reesa  Greenberg,  Bruce 
W.  Ferguson,  Sandy  Nairne,  eds..  Thinking 
about  Exhibitions  (London:  Routledge,  1996); 
Mary  Anne  Staniszewski,  The  Power  of 
Display:  A  History  of  Exhibition  Installations 
at  the  Museum  of  Modern  Art  (Cambridge: 
MIT  Press,  1998);  and  Alan  Wallach, 
Exhibiting  Contradictions:  Essays  on  the  Art 
Museum  in  the  United  States  (Amherst: 
University  of  Massachusetts  Press,  1998). 

9  Wallach,  Exhibitirtg  Contradictions,  6. 

10  See  William  H.  Truettner,  ed.,  The  West 
as  America:  Reinterpreting  Images  of  the 
Frontier,  1820-1920,  exh.  cat.  (Washington, 
D.C.:  Smithsonian  Institution  Press,  1991). 

11  Truettner,  The  West  as  America,  vii. 

12  See  "The  Battle  over  'The  West  as 
America,'"  in  Wallach,  Exhibiting  Contradic- 
tions, 105-17;  and  Steven  C.  Dubin,  Displays  of 
Power,  Memory,  and  Amnesia  in  the  American 
Museum  (New  York:  New  York  University 
Press,  1999),  153-273. 


13  See  Pierre  Bourdieu's  The  Field  of  Cultural 
Production:  Essays  on  Art  and  Literature, 
Randal  Johnson,  ed.  (New  York:  Columbia 
University  Press,  1993),  29-73,  in  which 
Bourdieu  describes  "fields  of  cultural  pro- 
duction," which  include  the  creation  of  art 
and  the  strategies  and  goals  of  artists  and 
the  world  of  collectors,  publishers,  galleries, 
museums,  academies,  critics,  etc.  Recent 
catalogues  for  exhibitions  that  reflect  these 
new  approaches  include  Johann  Georg  Prinz 
von  Hohenzollern  and  Peter-Klaus  Schuster, 
eds.,  Hugo  von  Tschudi  and  der  Kampfdic 
Moderne  (Munich:  Prestel,  1996);  Stephanie 
Barron  et  al..  Exiles  and  Emigres:  The  Flight 
of  European  Artists  from  Hitler  (Los  Angeles: 
Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art,  1997); 
Norman  Kleeblatt  and  Kenneth  E.  Silver, 
Expressionist  in  Paris:  The  Paintings  of  Chaim 
Soutine  (New  York:  Jewish  Museum,  1998); 
Kynaston  McShine,  The  Museum  as  Muse 
(New  York:  Museum  of  Modern  Art,  1999).  In 
addition,  a  thematic  approach  was  also  taken 
in  the  recent  series  of  exhibitions  moma  2000, 
organized  by  the  Museum  of  Modern  Art, 
New  York,  and  the  presentation  of  the  per- 
manent collection  of  Tate  Modern,  2000. 

14  This  book  has  been  reprinted  as  Sunshine 
Muse:  Art  on  the  West  Coast,  1945-1970 
(Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles:  University  of 
California  Press,  1999). 

15  In  1962,  Artforum  magazine  was  established 
in  San  Francisco,  giving  California  artists  a 
national  platform  for  exposure  in  their  own 
state;  the  magazine  moved  to  L.A.  in  1965  and 
then  decamped  for  New  York  in  1967. 

16  For  example,  The  Potter's  Art  in  California, 
1885  to  1955  (1980),  100  Years  of  California 
Sculpture:  The  Oakland  Museum,  Oakland 
(1982),  Twilight  and  Reverie:  California 
Tonalist  Painting,  1890-1930  (1995),  and  Art 
of  the  Gold  Rush  (1998). 

17  "Chinatown,  Part  Two?"  in  David  Read, 
ed..  Sex,  Death,  and  God  m  L.A.  (New  York: 
Random  House,  1992). 

18  See  Norman  M.  Klein,  The  History  of 
Forgetting:  Los  Angeles  and  the  Erasure  of 
Memory  (New  York:  Verso,  1997),  73-93. 

19  The  show  traveled  to  the  National  Museum 
of  American  Art  in  Washington,  D.C. 

20  See  also  Thomas  Albright,  Art  in  the 
San  Francisco  Bay  Area,  1945-1980  (Berkeley 
and  Los  Angeles:  University  of  California 
Press,  1985).  For  a  discussion  of  the  role  of 
California's  art  schools  in  the  state's  art, 
see  Paul  J.  Karlstrom,  "Art  School  Sketches: 
Notes  on  the  Central  Role  of  Schools  in 
California  Art  and  Culture,"  in  Reading 
California:  Art,  Image,  and  Identity,  1900-2000 
(Los  Angeles:  Los  Angeles  County  Museum 
of  Art  in  association  with  University  of 
California  Press,  Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles, 
2000). 

21  For  example.  The  Potter's  Art  in  California, 
1885-1955  (1980)  at  the  Oakland  Museum, 


and  West  Coast  Ceramics  (1979)  at  the 
Stedelijk  Museum  in  Amsterdam. 

22  Other  important  exhibitions  include 
Abstract  Expressionist  Ceramics,  organized  by 
lohn  Coplans  for  the  Art  Gallery,  University 
of  California,  Irvine  (1966);  Peter  Selz's 
Funk  at  the  University  Art  Museum,  Berkeley 
(1967);  A  Century  of  Ceramics,  curated  by 
Garth  Clark  and  Margie  Hughto  for  the 
Everson  Museum  of  Art  in  Syracuse,  New  York 
(1979);  and,  most  recently.  Color  and  Fire: 
Defining  Moments  in  Studio  Ceramics,  1950- 
2000,  curated  by  Jo  Lauria  at  the  Los  Angeles 
County  Museum  of  Art. 

23  Made  in  L.A.:  The  Prints  of  Cirrus  Editions 
presented  the  work  of  a  generation  of 
printmakers. 

24  For  example,  the  exhibitions  Assemblage 
in  California:  Works  from  the  Late  '50s  and 
Early  '60s  at  the  University  of  California, 
Irvine  (1968),  Lost  and  Found  in  California: 
Four  Decades  of  California  Assemblage  (1988) 
at  the  James  Corcoran  Gallery,  Santa  Monica, 
and  Forty  Years  of  California  Assemblage  at 
the  Wight  Art  Gallery,  ucla  (1989). 

25  Anne  Hyde,  An  American  Vision:  Far 
Western  Landscape  and  National  Culture, 
1820-1920  (New  York:  New  York  University 
Press,  1990).  See  also  Patricia  Nelson  Limerick, 
The  Legacy  of  Conquest:  The  Unbroken  Past  of 
the  American  West  (New  York:  W.  W.  Norton, 
1987)  and  Something  in  the  Soil  Legacies 

and  Reckonings  in  the  New  West  (New  York: 
W.  W.  Norton,  2000),  and  Richard  White, 
"It's  Your  Misfortune  and  None  of  My  Own": 
A  History  of  the  American  Wesf  (Norman: 
University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  1991). 

26  See  W.  J.  T.  Mitchell,  ed..  Landscape  and 
Power  (Chicago:  University  of  Chicago  Press, 
1994)- 

Acknowledgments 

I  want  to  thank  Sabine  Eckmann  for  her 

assistance  in  shaping  this  essay.  Additional 

thanks  are  due  to  Garrett  White,  Sheri 

Bernstein,  and  Ilene  Susan  Fort  for  cogent 

comments. 


Aeqiitaocn^ial    Lipe 


^ 


J^ 


PEOPLING  CALIFORNIA 


Michael  Dear 


Know  that  to  the  tight  hand  of  the  Indies  was  an  island  called  California, 
very  near  to  the  region  of  the  Terrestrial  Paradise,  which  was  populated 
by  black  women,  without  there  being  any  men  among  them,  that  almost 
like  the  Amazons  was  their  style  of  living . . .  There  ruled  on  that  island, 
called  California,  a  queen  great  of  body,  very  beautiful  for  her  race, 
at  a  flourishing  age,  desirous  in  her  thoughts  of  achieving  great  things, 
valiant  in  strength,  cunning  in  her  brave  heart,  more  than  any  other 
who  had  ruled  that  kingdom  before  her. . .  Queen  Calafia. 

GARCI  ORDONEZ  DE  MONTALVO   from  Las  sergas  del  muy  esfouado  caballero  Ssplandtan,  htjo  del  excelente  rey 
Amadis  de  Gaula,  a  novel  published  in  Spain  about  1500. 


Map  of  North  America  showing 
California  as  on  island, 
William  Grent,  1625 

Ceremonial  headdresses  of 
the  Costanoon  Indians  of 
California,  Louis  Choris,  1822 


Humans  have  lived  on  the  land  called  California 

for  more  than  10,000  years.  By  the  time  of  European 
contact,  CaHfornia,  a  land  of  unsurpassed  natural 
bounty,  was  probably  the  most  densely  settled  area 
north  of  Mexico,  occupied  by  diverse  groups  of 
migrants  and  settlers  later  referred  to  as  "Indians." 
The  discovery  of  the  New  World  by  Columbus  inspired 
a  fantastic  mythology  about  untold  riches,  earthly 
paradise,  and  great  peoples.  But  California  remained 
isolated  from  Europe  and  Asia  until  the  early  sixteenth 
century,  when  Spain  sent  a  war  expedition  to  Mexico 
under  the  leadership  of  Hernan  Cortes,  who  conquered 
and  plundered  the  Aztec  empire,  including  its  capital 
Tenochitlan  (today's  Mexico  City)  in  1521.  A  1542  expe- 
dition on  behalf  of  the  Spanish  crown  allowed  Juan 
Rodriguez  Cabrillo  to  gaze  on  Alta  California  (roughly 
the  present-day  state  of  California).  England's  Francis 
Drake  anchored  off  San  Francisco  Bay  in  1579.  And  in 
1602,  Spain  sent  Sebastian  Vizcaino  to  explore  the 
California  coastline  for  safe  anchorages  for  its  merchant 
fleets.  He  issued  a  hugely  exaggerated  report  on 
California's  attractions  but  failed  to  notice  San  Francisco 
Bay,  like  many  before  him.' 

There  then  followed  almost  two  centuries  of 
colonial  indifference,  until  Spain  began  to  take  a  new 
interest  in  Alta  California  late  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
This  was  because  the  British  and  French  had  grabbed 
parts  of  Canada  and  Louisiana,  and  Russians  were  mak- 
ing incursions  along  the  west  coast  of  North  America. 
So  the  Spanish  crown  decided  to  use  Alta  California 
as  a  buffer  state  to  protect  its  holdings  in  New  Spain. 

Lacking  the  resources  to  conquer  California  in 
a  single  offensive,  Spain  adopted  its  tried-and-tested 
method  of  sending  soldiers  and  missionaries  to  co-opt 
the  indigenous  populations  and  establish  a  colonial 
order.  (Land  grants  could  be  used  later  to  entice  civilian 


Ferdinand  Deppe 

Mission  San  Gabriel,  1832 


James  Walker 

Vaquero,  c.  1830s 


settlers.)  The  first  major  push  began  in  1769,  under 
the  joint  stewardship  of  Captain  Caspar  de  Portola  and 
the  Franciscan  Father  Junipero  Serra.  Over  the  next 
fifty  years,  the  Spaniards  estabHshed  twenty-one  mis- 
sion settlements  in  Alta  California,  as  well  as  a  number 
of  pueblos  and  presidios  hugging  the  coast  from 
San  Diego  to  Sonoma.^ 

The  task  of  settling  a  relatively  sparsely  popu- 
lated, semiarid  region  far  from  the  Spanish  homeland 
proved  difficult.  Half  a  century  later,  the  region 
remained  relatively  underdeveloped,  small  in  popula- 
tion and  military  power.  One  factor  that  hampered 
Spanish  ambitions  was  the  continuous  resistance  by 
native  Californians.  Despite  the  myths  of  harmonious 
mission  life,  the  colony  was  violent  and  unruly. 
Missionary  efforts  displaced  Indian  communities  from 
their  villages,  disrupted  family  and  tribal  life,  meted 
out  severe  punishments,  and  introduced  often-lethal 
new  diseases.  Between  1769  and  1846,  the  number  of 
California  Indians  declined  to  about  100,000,  or  one- 
third  of  earlier  totals.  Some  groups  fomented  open 
rebellion;  others  escaped  to  the  interior,  far  from  the 
reach  of  both  priest  and  pestilence.  Those  who  stayed 
frequently  offered  passive  resistance.  Yet  it  was  they 


who  provided  the  primary  agricultural  and  artisanal 
labor  force  for  Spanish  California,  without  whom  the 
colony  may  not  have  endured.' 

When  the  state  of  Mexico  was  cut  loose  from 
Spain  in  1821,  the  mission  system  faced  determined 
opposition  from  Alta  California's  new  government. 
Under  Mexican  secularization  acts,  mission  lands  were 
seized,  intended  for  redistribution  among  Indian  resi- 
dents of  the  mission.  In  practice,  however,  they  were 
usually  sold  into  private  hands,  thus  further  excluding 
Indians  from  their  homelands. 

The  people  from  colonial  Mexico  who  setded 
on  the  California  frontier  during  this  time  of  transition 
from  Spanish  to  Mexican  rule  came  to  be  called 
"Californios."  Proud  of  their  links  to  Spain  (via  the 
Franciscans),  Californios  were  a  ranching  elite  (based 
on  a  cattle  economy,  including  the  production  of  hides 
and  tallow)  who  referred  to  themselves  as  getite  de  razon, 
or  people  of  reason.  Many  of  the  great  families  claimed 
they  carried  in  their  veins  the  sangre  aziil  (blue  blood) 
of  Spain.  The  Indians,  somewhat  predictably,  were 
regarded  as  gente  sin  razon,  people  without  reason.  Such 
terminology  reflected  an  ancient  theological  divide 
between  civilization  and  savagery  but  was  also  strongly 
imbued  with  racial  overtones."  Required  to  work  on  the 
remaining  undistributed  mission  properties  to  maintain 
the  Mexican  territorial  government,  many  Indians 
found  themselves  under  a  regime  that  was  barely  distin- 
guishable from  Spanish  rule.  Miguel  Leon-Portilla  uses 
the  Nahuatl  term  nepantla  to  describe  indigenous 
people's  experience  of  "cultural  woundedness,"  brought 
about  because  the  colonizers  usurped  the  ethical  and 
spiritual  foundations  of  their  world.^ 

During  the  late  1820s,  more  Anglo  Americans 
started  arriving  in  California.'  Some  married  into 
Spanish-speaking  Californio  families  and  thus  gained 
access  to  land,  power,  and  status.  Others  converted  to 


Michael  Dear     peopling   californi 


Catholicism,  became  Mexican  citizens,  and  adopted 
Mexican  customs.  However,  many  Anglos  were  con- 
temptuous of  the  way  in  which  both  Spain  and  Mexico 
seemed  unable  to  realize  California's  promise.  Richard 
Henry  Dana's  Two  Years  before  the  Mast  (1840)  was 
perhaps  the  most  prominent  popular  narrative  that 
denigrated  Indian,  Californio,  and  Mexican  alike. 
Dana's  patronizing  lament — "In  the  hands  of  an 
enterprising  people,  what  a  country  this  might  be!" — 
was  fatefully  echoed  in  the  rising  sentiment  favoring 
the  Manifest  Destiny  of  the  United  States:  the  extension 
of  its  territorial  reach  all  the  way  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.' 
This  belief  was  to  provide  a  powerful  impetus  in  the 
Mexican  War  of  1846-48,  as  a  result  of  which  Mexico 
lost  a  third  of  its  territory  to  the  United  States,  includ- 
ing the  land  known  as  Alta  California. 

The  Treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  in  1848  ended 
hostilities  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico.' 
In  less  than  eighty  years,  the  land  tended  by  Indians 
for  millennia  had  passed  from  Spanish  to  Mexican  to 
United  States  control.  In  law,  the  treaty  protected  the 
civil  and  property  rights  of  Mexican  citizens  in 
California.  But  all  Mexican  holdings  were  formally 
called  into  question  by  the  California  Land  Act  of  1851, 
which  required  proof  of  clear  title  to  land.  The  enor- 
mous expense  this  effort  entailed  was  one  reason  for 
the  swift  sale  and  subdivision  of  the  ranchos  in  the 
early  1860s.'  The  Californios  soon  became  relegated  to 
second-class  citizenship.  In  addition,  the  United  States 
federal  government  rarely  recognized  the  Mexican 
land  grants  of  the  very  few  Indians  who  held  them. 
Bumped  down  in  the  pecking  order  by  Anglo  Americans 
and  Californios,  indigenous  Indians  became  third- 
class  citizens.  Their  continuing  resistance  and  efforts 
to  gain  legal  title  to  their  lands  were  instrumental  in 
producing  the  first  Indian  reservations  in  Southern 
CaUfornia  in  1865.'° 

On  the  morning  of  January  24,  1848,  at  Coloma,  on  the 
South  Fork  of  the  American  River  near  Sutter's  Fort, 
James  Marshall  discovered  gold.  A  small,  back-page 
article  in  The  Californian  of  March  15, 1848,  announced 
curtly:  "Gold  Mine  Found."  Suddenly,  California  became 
the  target  of  one  of  the  largest,  swiftest  migrations  in 


human  history.  "More  newcomers  now  arrived  each 
day  in  California  than  had  formerly  come  in  a  decade," 
was  how  historian  Leonard  Pitt  summed  up  the  begin- 
nings of  the  world-famous  Gold  Rush." 

Before  news  of  the  gold  strike  spread,  California's 
non- Indian  population  was  put  at  14,000.  By  the  end 
of  1849,  on  the  eve  of  statehood,  it  had  risen  to  almost 
100,000;  by  1852,  it  would  exceed  200,000  people.  A  few 
short  years  of  gold  fever  accomplished  what  a  century 
of  deliberate  colonial  efforts  had  failed  to  achieve: 
growth.  California's  economic  boom  pushed  the  Golden 
State  early  into  integration  with  the  United  States.  Its 
admission  as  a  free  state  in  1850  was  not  without  rancor, 
but  as  one  journalist-historian  put  it:  "The  Union  is  an 
exclusive  body,  but  when  a  millionaire  knocks  at  the 
door,  you  don't  keep  him  waiting  too  long,  you  let 
him  in."'^  As  competition  for  gold  escalated,  Anglo 
Americans  moved  covetously  to  protect  the  claims  for 
themselves.  The  Foreign  Miners'  Tax  of  1850  effectively 
barred  Chinese,  Mexicans,  Europeans,  and  even 
Californios  from  an  equal  chance  at  the  riches.  Yet 
despite  these  constraints,  the  California  Dream  was 
firmly  established  in  minds  across  the  nation  and  the 
world.  California  was  where  ordinary  folk  went  to 
become  fabulously  rich! 

San  Francisco  (renamed  from  Yerba  Buena  in 
1847)  was  ground  zero  for  urban  growth  during  the 
Gold  Rush.  Sacramento  also  acted  as  a  supply  center,  as 
did  Stockton,  and  Southern  California's  cow  counties 
even  got  caught  up  in  the  demands  of  their  northern 
neighbors.  But  everything  that  came  into  and  out  of  the 
Mother  Lode  country  had  to  pass  through  San  Francisco. 
By  i860,  the  city  had  a  population  of  57,000,  making  it 
America's  fifteenth-most-populous  urban  center,  the 
largest  city  west  of  the  Mississippi  River." 

Known  for  its  volatile  politics,  mob  justice,  and 
loose  social  climate,  San  Francisco  witnessed  the  rapid 
development  of  business  institutions,  churches,  news- 
papers, and  elite  neighborhoods.  The  city  became 
California's  first  great  manufacturing  center,  based  on 
machinery  and  metalworking  connected  to  resource- 
extractive  industries.  By  the  late  nineteenth  century,  it 
had  80  percent  of  the  state's  manufacturing  capacity,'" 
earning  its  machine  shops  the  title  of  "graduate  school 


Michael  Dear      peopl 


of  mechanics."'^  Approximately  half  the  city's  popula- 
tion was  foreign-born  during  most  of  the  second  half 
of  the  century.  Many  of  the  Gold  Rush  migrants  came 
from  New  England  and  the  Pacific  Northwest,  but 
they  were  joined  by  a  large  contingent  of  Chinese  and 
Mexican  people,  plus  a  couple  of  thousand  free  African 
Americans  and  a  handful  of  runaway  slaves.  Already, 
San  Francisco  was  the  capital  of  California's  nineteenth 
century. 

Carey  McWilliams  portrayed  the  breakneck 
speed  of  California's  entry  into  the  modern  world  in 
these  words: 

Elsewhere  the  tempo  of  development  was  slow  at  first, 
and  gradually  accelerated  as  energy  accumulated. 
But  in  California  the  lights  went  on  all  at  once,  in  a 
blaze,  and  they  have  never  been  dimmed}' 


>•• 


AU^  A^i 


.■■='—-  -9^-:-^ 


It  was  during  the  latter 
half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, under  the  stark  illumi- 
nation of  the  world's  gaze, 
that  California  became 
(according  to  Mark  Twain) 
a  mecca  for  "astounding 
enterprises.""  Silver  miners, 
agriculturalists,  railroad  mag- 
nates, bankers,  and  others 
rushed  in  to  seize  the 


moment.  The  spirit  of  the  times,  as  expressed  by 
historian  J.  S.  Holliday,  was  "stand  back,  make  way  for 
the  hydraulickers,  wheat  ranchers,  railroad  builders, 
stockbrokers,  and  tycoons  of  commerce."" 

As  if  gold  were  not  enough,  silver  was  discovered 
in  i860  in  an  indecently  rich  vein  known  as  the 
Comstock  Lode,  on  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada.  From  deep  mines,  wage-earning  miners  hoisted 
to  the  surface  between  i860  and  1880  ore  worth  $300 
million.  And  as  before,  everything  that  went  into  and 
came  out  of  the  instant  town  of  Virginia  City  had  to 
pass  through  San  Francisco.  To  shore  up  these  mines, 
unimaginable  quantities  of  timber  were  cut.  As  one  con- 
temporary observed:  "The  Comstock  Lode  may  truth- 
fully be  said  to  be  the  tomb  of  the  forests  of  the  Sierra."" 
In  addition,  wildlife  was  decimated  for  food,  and  river 
valleys  were  destroyed  by  the  new  hydraulic-power  hoses 
used  in  gold  mining.  The  whole  California  economy,  it 
seemed,  was  instantly  and  insistently  (in  geographer 
Richard  Walker's  memorable  phrasing):  "digging  up, 
grinding  down,  and  spitting  out  the  gifts  of  the  earth."^° 

The  gold  miners'  seemingly  untouchable  aristoc- 
racy was  challenged  by  a  persistent  group  of  farmers 
downstream  in  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin 
valleys.  By  the  early  1880s,  the  value  of  California's 
agricultural  production  exceeded  that  of  mining. 
This  bolstered  the  farmers'  case  against  the  miners, 
whose  upstream  operations  were  periodically  flooding 


William  Rich  Hutton 

San  Francisco,  1847 


William  Hahn 

Harvest  Time,  1875 


and  burying  the  agriculturalists'  crops  and  towns. 
Ultimately,  after  a  long  legal  struggle,  hydraulic  mining 
techniques  were  banned  in  California  in  January  1884, 
thereby  ushering  in  the  end  of  the  Gold  Rush  era/' 

The  agricultural  enterprise  that  sprang  out  of 
the  plethora  of  unsettled  land  titles  in  the  Central 
Valley  was  large  in  scale  and  operation.  The  valley's 
unmatched  ecologies,  based  upon  wetlands  (cienegas), 
riparian  woodlands,  lakes,  and  rivers,  were  systemati- 
cally drained  and  plowed  under  for  agricultural 
production.  Historian  William  Fulton  described  the 
consequent  agribusiness  as  "capital-intensive,  highly 
mechanized,  concentrated  in  its  land  ownership  pat- 
terns, and  oriented  toward  export  markets.""  By  the 
1870s,  more  than  half  the  land  in  California  was  owned 
by  .2  percent  of  the  state's  population."  The  initial 
boom  crop,  the  "grower's  gold,"  was  wheat.^"  In  1881, 
4  million  acres  of  wheat  fields,  stretching  throughout 
the  Central  Valley  and  covering  two-thirds  of  all  culti- 
vated land  in  the  state,  yielded  $34  million  on  the  world 
market — almost  twice  the  value  of  the  gold  produced 
that  year."  But  just  as  the  demise  of  gold  mining  was 
swift  and  stark,  so  the  end  of  wheat's  hegemony  was 
surprising  and  speedy.  Competition  from  home  and 
abroad,  rapid  soil  depletion,  and  a  market  slump 
effectively  eliminated  California  wheat  production  by 
the  early  1890s. 

On  its  completion  in  1856,  Theodore  Judah  had 
won  fame  as  the  engineer  who  surveyed  and  promoted 
California's  first  railroad — twenty-two  miles  of  track 
between  Sacramento  and  the  foothill  town  of  Folsom, 
supply  center  for  the  mining  camps  along  the  American 
River.  Judah  optimistically  approached  San  Francisco 
investors  with  a  plan  for  a  transcontinental  railroad, 
which  they  huffily  rejected,  viewing  such  a  pipe  dream 
(quite  correctly,  it  turns  out)  as  a  threat  to  their  ocean- 
oriented  transportation  monopoly. 

So  Judah  went  to  Sacramento.  There  he  met 
four  merchants — Collis  Huntington,  Mark  Hopkins, 
Charles  Crocker,  and  Leland  Stanford.  The  Big  Four, 
as  they  came  to  be  called,  were  risk  takers  and  skillful 
entrepreneurs.  They  brought  the  Central  Pacific 
Railroad  (cprr)  from  Sacramento  to  meet  the  westward- 
moving  Union  Pacific  Railroad  at  Promontory,  Utah. 


The  last  spike  in  this  celebrated  connection  between 
east  and  west  was  struck  on  May  10, 1869,  changing 
California  and  the  nation  forever.  Despite  their  success, 
the  avaricious,  monopolistic  barons  of  the  newly 
formed  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  (sp),  which  absorbed 
the  CPRR,  inspired  Californians'  contempt  on  more 
than  one  occasion,  and  played  a  pivotal  role  in  state 
politics  in  the  ensuing  five  decades.  For  instance, 
Charles  Crocker's  decision  to  import  12,000  Chinese 
laborers  to  complete  the  most  difficult  and  dangerous 
work  on  the  railroad  had  serious  repercussions. 
Unhappy  with  this  competition,  the  state's  white  work- 
ing class  developed  strong  anti-Chinese  sentiments. 
California  workers  led  the  charge  for  a  complete  federal 
ban  on  Chinese  immigrants  in  1885,  an  exclusionary 
outlook  on  race  that  persists  today  in  various  incarna- 
tions. Residents  also  rebelled  against  the  sp  juggernaut 
itself,  directing  their  resentment  toward  the  monopoly's 
apparent  greed  and  corruption.  The  attempt  to  derail 
"the  Octopus"  (so  known  for  its  propensity  to  extend  its 
tentacles  to  control  every  aspect  of  the  state)  defined 
California  politics  into  the  Progressive  Era." 

In  the  1870s,  the  cprr  and  its  subsidiaries  con- 
structed rail  track  along  the  entire  length  of  the  Central 
Valley,  thus  releasing  the  fullest  development  of  the 
valley's  agricultural  potential."  The  sp  conglomerate 
helped  transform  the  landscape  by  bankrolling  start-up 
farms,  researching  railcar  refrigeration,  and  nurturing 
experimentation  with  new  crops.^"  Another  distinctive 
feature  of  California's  agricultural  boom  was  the 
growers'  exchange,  which  encouraged  farmers  to  pool 
resources  and  work  together  to  develop  export  markets. 
But  the  availability  of  cheap  agricultural  labor  was  the 
most  critical  human  factor  in  the  state's  burgeoning 
agribusiness.  Recounting  California's  almost  unbeliev- 
able dependence  on  ethnic  migrant  farmworkers,  Walter 
Stein  wrote:  "Chinese  in  the  1870s;  Japanese  in  the 


Carleton  8.  Watkins 
Transcontinental  Rail 
Terminal,  1876 


1890s;  East  Indians  after  the  turn  of  the  century; 
Mexicans  and  FiHpinos  during  and  after  World  War  I; 
Okies  during  the  1930s;  southern  blacks  along  with 
Filipinos  and  Mexicans  again  during  the  1940s.""  The 
most  critical  natural  factor  in  California  agriculture  was 
water.^°  One  of  the  nineteenth  century's  least  noticed 
but  most  fundamental  innovations  was  the  1887 
Irrigation  District  Act,  which  allowed  farmers  to  coop- 
eratively build  and  operate  watering  systems."  By  the 
mid-i920S,  innovative  farming  and  intensive  irrigation 
had  allowed  California  to  become  the  nation's  leading 
agricultural  state. 

The  railroad  also  changed  the  way  California 
built  cities.  By  September  1876,  the  sp  arrived  in 
Southern  California  from  the  north.  In  1885,  it  opened 
a  direct  line  to  the  east.  But,  most  importantly,  in  1887 
the  first  Santa  Fe  Railroad  train  snaked  through  the 
San  Bernardino  Mountains  into  Los  Angeles,  thus 
breaking  the  sp  monopoly.  The  ensuing  rate  war  (a 
one-way  ticket  from  Kansas  City  to  L.A.  fell  from  $125 
to  $1!)  inaugurated  Southern  California's  first  major 
land  boom.  It  also,  in  Leonard  Pitt's  words,  "sealed  the 
coffin  of  the  old  California  culture."" 

Turn-of-the-century  Los  Angeles  offered  itself  as 
paradise  for  land  and  property  speculators,  sunseekers 
and  tourists,  homesteaders  and  health  fanatics.  As  early 
as  1886,  local  wags  claimed  it  had  more  real  estate 
agents  per  acre  than  any  other  city  in  the  world."  City 
boosters  were,  however,  anxious  to  nourish  a  more 
conventional  industrial  base.  The  discovery  of  oil 
helped  somewhat  (Edward  L.  Doheny  had  sunk  the 
first  well  in  1892),  but  it  required  impressive  invest- 
ments in  urban  infrastructure — rail,  water,  power,  and 
port — to  properly  realize  L.A.'s  potential.  For  instance, 
San  Pedro  harbor  (opened  in  1899  and  annexed  to  the 
City  of  Los  Angeles  in  1906)  very  quickly  became  the 
state's  first-ranked  port.  And  in  1913,  the  amazing 
Owens  Valley  Aqueduct  reached  L.A.,  enabling  engineer 
William  Mulholland  to  boldly  declare,  "There  it  is. 
Take  it!,"  as  the  first  waters  gushed  over  the  aqueduct's 
sluiceway.  The  date  was  November  5, 1913.  It  was  the 
earliest  indication  that  Los  Angeles  was  to  become 
the  capital  of  California's  twentieth  century. 


Still,  San  Francisco  continued  to  view  its  southern 
neighbors  with  complacency.  It  sought  to  confirm  its 
arrival  on  the  world  scene  early  in  the  twentieth 
century  by  hiring  the  eminent  Chicago  architect  Daniel 
Burnham  to  prepare  a  city  plan.  In  addition,  an  exposi- 
tion was  scheduled  to  celebrate  the  much-anticipated 
1915  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal.  But  in  1906  an 
earthquake  ignited  a  huge  fire  that  devastated  the 
metropolis.  Neighboring  towns  anticipated  that  "the 
City"  would  never  recover,  but  recover  it  did.  In  1915, 
San  Francisco  opened  a  new  civic  center  and  hosted 
the  Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition.  Their 
architectural  designs  conjured  up  visions  of  a  cosmo- 
politan, classical.  Beaux- Arts  City  by  the  Bay. 

That  same  year  in  San  Diego,  quite  a  different 
exposition  was  mounted.  The  Panama-California 
Exposition  was  determinedly  Southern  Californian  in 
outlook.  As  social  historian  Phoebe  Kropp  makes 
clear,  both  the  Panama-Pacific  in  the  north  and  the 
Panama-California  in  the  south  were  self-promotional 
sorties  in  the  wars  between  cities."  Against  San 
Francisco's  studied  cosmopolitanism,  San  Diego  adver- 
tised agricultural  and  commercial  possibilities,  plus  a 
distinctly  Spanish  Colonial  sensibility  and  heritage. 
While  San  Francisco  aspired  to  worldly  sophistication, 
Southern  California  had  found  a  regional  identity  and 
had  begun  to  compete  for  national  attention.  By  1920, 
California  was  the  eighth  most  populous  state  in  the 
Union,  and  the  growth  momentum  had  shifted  south, 
to  Los  Angeles. 

Since  the  turn  of  the  century,  the  local  chamber 
of  commerce  had  hyped  Los  Angeles  into  becoming 
one  of  the  best-publicized  places  in  the  United  States. 
Tourists  and  prosperous  Midwesterners  were  particu- 
larly targeted,  and  these  efforts  ignited  successive 
rushes  of  untrammeled  urban  growth.  In  1918,  6,000 
building  permits  were  issued  in  Los  Angeles;  by  1923 
(the  peak  of  the  boom),  this  number  had  climbed  to 
more  than  62,000,  with  a  total  value  of  $200  million. 
By  1925,  L.A.  had  no  fewer  than  600,000  subdivided  lots 
standing  vacant.  The  city  had  already  parceled  out 
enough  land  to  accommodate  7  million  people,  fifty 
years  before  the  reality  of  population  growth  would 
catch  up  with  the  speculators'  appetites! 


Very  early  during  these  boom  years,  the  traditions 
of  immigration  to  Southern  California  from  northern 
and  western  Europe  were  displaced.  Southern  and 
eastern  Europeans  took  their  place,  joined  by  peoples 
of  Mexican,  lapanese,  and  African  American  origin. 
By  1930,  Mexicans  were  by  far  the  largest  minority 
group  in  Los  Angeles,  which  already  had  a  racial/ethnic 
diversity  unmatched  anywhere  along  the  West  Coast. 

Not  everyone  regarded  the  California  develop- 
ment juggernaut  with  equanimity.  One  prominent  critic 
was  John  Muir,  who  anticipated  present-day 
environmentalism  by  insisting  on  the  ecological  bond 
between  people  and  nature.  In  1892,  Muir  founded  the 
Sierra  Club,  an  influential  conservationist  group  as  well 
as  a  social  club  for  wilderness  outings.  Muir  and  the 
Sierra  Club  won  federal  jurisdiction  for  Yosemite  Valley 
in  1906  but  lost  battles  over  the  Hetch  Hetchy  Valley 
and  the  Owens  River,  when  San  Francisco  and 
Los  Angeles  tapped  Sierra  rivers  during  this  period." 

The  taint  of  conspiracy,  collusion,  and  corrup- 
tion surrounding  so  many  urban  water  projects  gave 
impetus  to  California  Progressivism  during  the  early 
twentieth  century.  Another  favorite  target  was  the 
Octopus.  One  quintessential  Progressive  organization 
was  the  California  Lincoln-Roosevelt  League,  initiated 
in  1907  by  reform-minded  Republicans.  The  league 
set  out  to  free  its  party  from  railroad  domination  but 
also  furthered  Progressive  goals  such  as  the  initiative, 
referendum,  and  recall  statutes;  public  regulation  of 
utilities  and  railroads;  and  the  direct  primary  election. 
The  league  endorsed  women's  voting  rights,  providing 
the  impulse  for  equal  suffrage  in  California  (the  sixth 
state  in  the  union  to  establish  this,  in  1911),  as  well 
as  other  Progressive  issues,  including  minimum-wage 
laws,  control  of  child  labor,  and  the  deterrence  of 
alcoholism,  gambling,  and  vice. 

Yet  for  all  the  efforts  to  extend  democracy,  the 
Progressive  Era  in  California  was  tainted  by  campaigns 
of  racial  exclusion  (as  were  earlier,  presumably  less- 
progressive  times).  Labor  leaders  and  Progressive 


reformers  together  instituted  the  Asiatic  Exclusion 
League  in  1905,  advocating  such  measures  as  school 
segregation  and  immigration  restrictions.  Resentment  of 
the  success  of  Japanese  farmers  led  to  the  Alien  Land 
Law  Act  of  1913,  which  forbade  noncitizens  from  owning 
real  property  in  the  state.  The  California  Dream  and 
United  States  citizenship  remained  determinedly  white. 
And  while  unions  were  strong  in  the  Bay  Area,  fear  of 
labor  radicalism  (especially  following  the  1910  bombing 
of  the  Los  Angeles  r;>?!ei- building)  fostered  an  antiunion, 
"open-shop"  attitude  in  L.A.  that  persists  to  this  day." 

Throughout  the  booming  1920s,  the  difficult 
1930s,  and  the  coming  of  war,  California  continued  to 
attract  people.  In  the  decade  of  the  1920s,  2  million 
Americans  became  Californians,  most  of  them  settling 
in  the  Southland,  and  most  of  them  from  white 
Midwestern  states.  It  was  the  greatest  relative  popula- 
tion increase  of  any  decade  in  the  state's  history,  and 
the  most  homogeneous  in  terms  of  origins. 

The  motion  picture  industry — Hollywood! — 
did  much  to  broadcast  California's  appeal."  Begun  in 
New  York  and  San  Francisco,  production  companies 
soon  recognized  that  Southern  California's  landscapes 
and  climate  were  ideal  for  moviemaking.  No  less  than 
70  picture  studios  had  established  themselves  in  and 


"Ramona"-style  pageant, 
San  Gabriel  Mission,  early 
twentieth  century 

Arnold  Genthe 

Chinatown,  San  Francisco, 
1898,  gelatin-silver  print 


Pickford/Fairbanks  Studios, 
Santa  Monica  Boulevard, 
Los  Angeles,  c.  1926 

Dorothea  Longe 

Resettled,  El  Monte, 
California,  1936,  gelatin- 
silver  print 


around  Hollywood  by  1914.  By  the  late  1920s,  industry 
integration  had  given  birth  to  the  studio  system,  domi- 
nated by  Paramount,  Fox,  mgm,  Universal,  Warner 
Brothers,  and  rko.  For  locals  as  well  as  tourists,  it 
became  increasingly  difficult  to  see  where  movie  fantasy 
stopped  and  the  real  world  began."  Certainly,  the 
movies  advertised  a  seductive  lifestyle  that  became  part 
of  the  mythos  of  California.  Moviemaking  occupied  the 
streets  and  vacant  lots  of  Los  Angeles,  even  after  pro- 
duction was  consolidated  in  large  studio-run  facilities. 
The  Industry  also  attracted  filmmakers  from  Europe, 
who  were  often  fleeing  the  rise  of  fascism,  and  spawned 
a  tradition  of  artist-in-exile  that  was  to  indelibly  stamp 
Southern  California  cultural  life  for  the  rest  of  the 
century."  Immigrants  typically  wanted  a  single-family 
home  in  the  suburbs,  but  decidedly  not  the  urbanism 
that  characterized  the  eastern  and  Midwestern  cities 
from  whence  they  came,  and  the  homebuilding  indus- 
try was  determined  to  satisfy  those  needs.  By  1930, 
Los  Angeles  housed  94  percent  of  its  residents  in  single- 
family  homes  (the  highest  percentage  in  the  nation)."" 
Another  significant  sponsor  of  suburbanization 
was  the  automobile,  which  simply  accelerated  the 
process  already  begun  by  suburban  railways.  The  Auto- 
mobile Club  of  Southern  California  and  the  California 
State  Automobile  Association  were  both  founded  in 
1900.  With  the  introduction  of  the  relatively  affordable 
Ford  Model  T,  car  ownership  rose  rapidly,  but  nowhere 
faster  than  in  Los  Angeles.  By  1925,  Los  Angeles  had 
one  auto  for  every  three  people,  more  than  twice  the 
national  average."'  The  automobile  irrevocably  altered 
the  landscapes  of  California,  not  only  with  the  hundreds 
of  miles  of  paved  roads  and  highways  it  demanded 
but  also  with  the  new  social  forms  it  inspired — the 


supermarket,  drive-in  theater,  and  flamboyant  roadside 
architecture."^ 

Literally  fueling  this  mass  motorization  were  the 
region's  abundant  oil  supplies.  Oil  had  been  found  in 
Los  Angeles  in  the  early  1890s,  provoking  the  steady 
development  of  exploration,  refinery  construction,  and 
conversion  from  coal  usage.  But  a  series  of  exceptionally 
productive  discoveries  in  the  1920s,  accompanied  by 
increasing  demand,  conspired  to  make  California  the 
nation's  largest  oil-producing  state  through  the  1930s 
(including  output  from  the  legendary  Signal  Hill  and 
the  Tulare  Basin  in  the  south  Central  Valley).  The  state 
produced  oil  worth  more  than  $2.5  billion  during  that 
decade,  a  half  billion  dollars  more  than  all  the  gold  ever 
mined  in  the  state.  Prospectors  and  property  specula- 
tors tripped  over  each  other  in  many  L.A.  subdivisions; 
suburbanites  dug  deep  for  oil  in  their  own  backyards. 
Yet  by  decade's  end,  the  oil  industry  had  faded  in 
Southern  California,  and  elsewhere  in  the  state  it  had 
become  consolidated  into  a  few  corporate  entities."' 

The  Great  Depression  brought  about  acute  personal 
hardship,  bitter  labor  struggles,  and  heightened  racial 
antagonisms.  San  Francisco  staggered  under  a  25  per- 
cent unemployment  rate;  Los  Angeles's  rate  was  20 
percent.  The  1934  General  Strike  in  San  Francisco,  called 
in  retaliation  against  the  National  Guard's  violent  sup- 
pression of  the  earlier  International  Longshoremen 


I  ::t^A'  ,       y\  -' 


Association's  strike,  was  less  than  a  success.  In  L.A.,  city 
officials  and  Anglo  workers  blamed  Mexican  workers 
for  their  troubles.  In  1930,  a  "repatriation"  effort  was 
begun,  which  ultimately  returned  to  Mexico  one-third 
of  the  city's  Mexican  and  Mexican  American  popula- 
tions (approximately  35,000  people).  It  was  also  during 
this  time  that  300,000  poverty-stricken  Midwestern 
farmers  arrived  in  California  and  transformed  the 
state's  farm  labor  force.  They  came  from  the  Dust  Bowl 
regions,  largely  between  1935  and  1939,  and  quickly 
acquired  the  generic  name  "Okies."  They  came  at  a  time 
when  growers  faced  the  possibility  of  rising  wages  for 
the  first  time  in  many  years,  and  their  willingness  to 
accept  low  pay  kept  farm  wages  down,  undercut  union 
efforts,  and  displaced  Mexican  farm  laborers  for  years 
to  come." 

Ultimately,  it  was  federal  money  invested  in 
New  Deal  projects  that  began  to  pull  the  state  out  of 
depression.  The  Civilian  Conservation  Corps,  the 
Works  Progress  Administration,  and  many  other  public- 
works  projects  created  a  state  infrastructure  that  has 
endured  as  both  the  material  and  mental  underpin- 
nings of  the  California  Dream.  Along  with  such  familiar 
monuments  as  the  Golden  Gate  and  San  Francisco- 
Oakland  Bay  bridges,  federal  agencies  oversaw  construc- 
tion of  the  Colorado  River  project  (including  the 
Hoover  Dam),  which  brought  water  to  sustain  Southern 
California's  urban  growth."  Then  World  War  11  erupted 
in  Europe. 

California  was  well  positioned  to  supply  the 
nation  for  war.  In  1919,  the  U.S.  Navy  had  divided  its 
newly  modernized  and  enlarged  fleet,  sending  half  to 
the  West  Coast  and  thereby  triggering  a  nervous 
struggle  among  West  Coast  ports  as  to  who  would  get 
what.  San  Diego,  Los  Angeles,  San  Francisco,  Vallejo, 
and  Seattle  battled  furiously  for  naval  bases,  but  also 
for  the  potential  of  revitalized  merchant  marine  and 
shipbuilding  industries.  This  particular  conflation  of 
national  politics  (Senator  James  D.  Phelan  led  the 
charge  in  Washington,  D.C.,  to  ensure  that  the  West 
Coast  got  its  share  of  the  Navy  spoils),  unstoppable 
urban  growth,  and  city-father  hucksterism  ultimately 
created  what  historian  Roger  Lotchin  called  "Fortress 
California."" 


How   .1    PlAYCROtJIIII 
OOES    TO    WAR  ! 


Planning  Your  Victory  Vacation  in  Southern  Californit 


More  than  $35  billion  in  public  monies  were  sunk 
into  California  industries  during  World  War  II,  roughly 
10  percent  of  all  government  funds.  Fueled  by  fear  of  a 
Japanese  invasion  following  the  attack  on  Pearl  Harbor, 
this  investment  sparked  not  only  strong  economic 
recovery  in  California,  but  also  a  tremendous  expansion 
in  scientific  and  technological  enterprises.  Some 
referred  to  it  as  the  "Second  Gold  Rush.""  In  Northern 
California,  shipbuilding  was  dominant;  the  Kaiser  ship- 
yards in  the  East  Bay  suburb  of  Richmond  employed 
tens  of  thousands  of  workers  constructing  warships  in 
record  time.  In  the  south,  the  aircraft  industry 
employed  more  than  half  the  aircraft  workers  in  the 
nation.  These  wartime  industries  drew  large  numbers 
of  women  into  the  labor  force  for  the  first  time  and 
intensified  migration  by  African  Americans."  In  1940, 
African  Americans  composed  only  1.8  percent  of  the 
state's  population;  by  1950,  this  proportion  had  risen  to 
4.3  percent. 

The  rapid  pace  of  in-migration  plus  war-initiated 
shortages  created  social  problems  and  exacerbated 
racial  antagonisms.  A  dearth  of  affordable  housing, 
aggravated  by  discrimination  in  housing  markets. 


How  a  Playground  Goes  to 
Mar!,  brochure,  1943.  Lent  by 


Michael  Dear 


Participants  in  the  Bracero 
program  awaiting  final  roll 
call  and  distribution  of 
identification  papers,  Mexico, 
1944 


solidified  the  tendency  toward  racially  segregated 
communities  throughout  California."'  During  the  1943 
Zoot  Suit  riots  in  Los  Angeles,  hundreds  of  white  ser- 
vicemen attacked  flamboyantly  dressed  Mexican  youths 
because  the  Anglos  interpreted  their  garb  as  disloyal. 
Police  arrested  the  zoot-suiters  for  disturbing  the 
peace."  Long-standing  racial  prejudice  and  wartime 
fears  for  national  security  led  also  to  the  internment  of 
more  than  100,000  people  of  Japanese  descent,  two- 
thirds  of  whom  were  American  citizens.  For  the  dura- 
tion of  the  war,  many  Japanese  Californians  found 
themselves  in  isolated  camps  set  in  some  of  the  more 
desolate  parts  of  the  Mojave  Desert,  the  eastern  Sierras, 
and  elsewhere.^' 

After  1945,  a  long  period  of  economic  prosperity 
settled  upon  California.  The  Cold  War  and  the  conflicts 
in  Korea  and  Vietnam  prompted  continuing  high  levels 
of  defense-related  expenditures.  By  i960,  aerospace 
industries  employed  70  percent  of  San  Diego's  and  60 
percent  of  Los  Angeles's  manufacturing  workers.  Such 
growth,  together  with  further  diversification  in  employ- 
ment patterns,  pushed  population  to  new  heights. 
California  became  the 
nation's  most  populous  state 
in  1962,  passing  New  York, 
having  grown  from  6.9 
million  in  1940  to  15.7  mil- 
T-         -  lion  in  two  short  decades. 

Prosperity  fueled  social 
experimentation.  The  Beat 
writers  congregated  in 
San  Francisco  during  the 
1950s,  establishing  an  intel- 
lectual counterculture  based 
on  pacifism,  radicalism, 
and  experimentalism  that 
fundamentally  informed  the  student  movements  of  the 
following  decade.  Republican  governor  Earl  Warren 
(and  his  Democratic  successor,  Edmund  G.  Brown) 
used  much  of  the  state's  postwar  budget  surplus  to 
create  a  model  higher-education  system  in  California. 

Needless  to  say,  the  postwar  boom  did  not 
benefit  everyone  equally.  Under  the  provisions  of  the 
wartime  Emergency  Farm  Labor  Program,  an  agreement 


negotiated  with  the  Mexican  government  often  known 
as  the  Bracero  program,  Mexican  workers  were  to  be 
offered  contracts  with  guaranteed  wages,  housing,  and 
health  care.  Kept  in  operation  until  1964,  the  bracero 
effort  never  lived  up  to  its  ideals,  in  part  because  it  was 
constantly  undermined  by  the  continuing  high  demand 
for  labor,  which  encouraged  unofficial  immigration 
from  Mexico.  When  in  1952  the  U.S.  government 
sponsored  "Operation  Wetback"  to  stall  unauthorized 
crossings  from  south  of  the  border,  California  encoun- 
tered an  ironic  situation  whereby  one  government 
agency  was  recruiting  foreign  workers  while  another 
was  turning  them  away. 

The  decade  of  the  1960s  became  the  contradic- 
tory apex  of  prosperity  and  protest  in  California." 
The  Free  Speech  Movement  at  Berkeley  adopted  tactics 
of  the  civil  rights  movement  to  provoke  confrontations 
on  academic  freedom  and  students'  rights.  Intensified 
by  opposition  to  the  Vietnam  War,  the  movement's 
tactics  escalated  toward  more  violent  expressions  of 
civil  disobedience.  At  the  same  time,  however,  a  more 
pacifist  hippie  counterculture  carried  on  the  Beat 
traditions,  and  experimentation  with  psychedelic  drugs 
became  a  rite  of  passage  for  California  youth  (and 
copycats  the  world  over).  But  students  and  young 
people  were  not  the  only  ones  who  took  to  the  streets  in 
the  1960s.  Cesar  Chavez  led  one  of  the  most  successful 
attempts  to  organize  California  farmworkers.  Gaining 
the  support  of  an  ethnically  diverse  pool  of  workers, 
Chavez  combined  the  traditional  goals  of  higher  wages, 
better  living  conditions,  and  improved  benefits  with 
innovative  techniques  of  coalition  building  and  organ- 
ized boycotts.  In  his  most  famous  and  ingenious 
campaign,  Chavez  expanded  the  Delano  grape  strike  in 
1965  by  calling  for  a  nationwide  boycott  of  table  grapes. 
This  strategy  not  only  netted  national  publicity  for 
La  Causa  but  also  pressured  growers  to  accede  to  union 
demands." 

The  most  telling  indicator  that  all  was  not  well 
with  the  good  ship  California  was  the  Watts  riots  of 
1965."  Proposition  14  had  been  approved  by  a  margin 
of  two  to  one  by  predominantly  Anglo  voters  in  1964. 
This  revoked  the  Rumford  Act  of  1963,  which  banned 
racial  discrimination  in  housing,  and  would  have 


7MTRA[f] 
EXCLUSIVE!    rj 
REsfRICTEDJ    *' 


"      I 


curtailed  desegregation  efforts  had  it  not  been  declared 
unconstitutional  in  later  years.  For  African  Americans  in 
South  Central  Los  Angeles,  the  passage  of  Proposition 
14  was  the  last  straw  in  an  ongoing  legacy  of  discrimina- 
tion. Between  1940  and  1964,  L.A.'s  African  American 
population  had  grown  from  40,000  to  nearly  650,000. 
At  the  same  time,  residential  opportunities  had  not 
expanded  far  beyond  the  crowded  streets  of  South 
Central.  Following  arrests  and  persistent  rumors  of 
police  brutality,  violent  clashes  broke  out  between 
police  and  African  Americans,  leaving  $40  million  in 
property  damage  and  thirty-four  people  dead,  all  but 
three  black.  Before  the  six  days  of  rioting  were  over,  a 
National  Guard  force  of  13,900  had  been  deployed  to 
restore  order.  In  the  aftermath  of  Watts,  a  more  militant 
black  power  movement  emerged,  most  notably  with  the 
establishment  of  the  Black  Panther  party  in  Oakland. 
Founded  by  Huey  P.  Newton  and  Bobby  Seale,  the 
Panthers  couched  black  power  in  a  rhetoric  of  socialism 
and  armed  resistance. 

Another  reaction  to  student  activism  was  a  wave 
of  political  conservatism.  In  this  atmosphere,  former 
actor  Ronald  Reagan  emerged  as  standard-bearer  for 
the  Republican  Party.  Serving  as  California  governor 
between  1967  and  1974,  Reagan  began  to  implement 
widely  promised  campaign  goals  to  cut  taxes  and  roll 
back  government.  At  the  time  of  his  election,  the 
Los  Angeles-San  Diego  corridor  was  home  to  41  percent 
of  the  state's  population,  as  against  the  Bay  Area's  15 
percent.  And  more  than  90  percent  of  the  state's  resi- 
dents lived  in  metropolitan  areas  (increasingly  the  sub- 
urban counties),  making  California  the  nation's  most 
urbanized  as  well  as  its  most  populous  state. 

The  passage  of  Proposition  13  in  1978  marked  a  water- 
shed in  post-World  War  II  California  politics.  In 
journalist  Peter  Schrag's  words,  it  separated  "that 
period  of  postwar  optimism,  with  its  huge  investment 
in  public  infrastructure  and  its  strong  commitment 
to  the  development  of  quality  education  systems  and 


other  public  services,  and  a  generation  of  declining 
confidence  and  shrinking  public  services.""  Since  1978, 
he  asserts,  Californians  have  been  involved  in  a  "nearly 
constant  revolt  against  representative  government."" 

The  initiative,  referendum,  and  recall  mecha- 
nisms that  enabled  Proposition  13  had  been  in  place 
since  1911,  when  Progressive  Era  reformers  were  looking 
for  ways  to  curtail  the  excesses  of  a  state  government 
dominated  by  a  handful  of  powerful  interests,  especially 
the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad.  For  most  of  the  twentieth 
century  these  checks  were  used  sparingly,  until  1978, 
when  Proposition  13  (sponsored  by  Howard  Jarvis  and 
Paul  Gann)  initiated  a  tax  revolt  that  changed  the  prac- 
tice of  California  politics  to  this  day 

Proposition  13  was  basically  designed  to  cut  state 
and  local  property  taxes.  In  this  it  was  successful;  in  just 
four  years  the  state  and  local  tax  burden  was  lowered 
by  more  than  25  percent."  Local  officials  sought  to 
replace  lost  revenues  with  new  fees  and  service  charges. 
California's  public  schools  began  a  path  of  decline  from 
which  they  have  yet  to  recover.  Ironically,  about  one 


Restricted  housing  tract, 
Los  Angeles,  c.  1950 


National  Guardsmen  during 
the  Watts  riots,  1965 


CALIFOR^ 


Common  Threads  Artists 
Group 

"Guess  Who  Pockets  the 
Difference?"  poster,  1995 


quarter  of  the  $50  billion  that  Californians  "saved" 
during  the  first  five  years  of  Proposition  13  was  returned 
to  the  federal  government  through  personal  and  corpo- 
rate income  taxes. 

The  Proposition  13-induced  squeeze  on  tax 
revenues  and  public  services  began  to  bite  just  when 
the  state  was  undergoing  a  demographic  transition  of 
major  proportions  and  entering  a  period  of  economic 
uncertainty  that  would  culminate  in  the  recession  of 
the  early  1990s.  No  one  yet  understands  the  precise 
interconnections  among  these  three  events,  but  their 
combined  impacts  on  California  have  been  breath- 
taking. By  1962, 110  years  after  statehood,  California 
had  become  the  nation's  most  populous  state,  with  17.5 
million  inhabitants.  It  took  only  thirty-five  more  years 
to  double  that  figure.  A  large  proportion  of  this  enor- 
mous expansion  was  fueled  by  international  migration. 
Changes  in  immigration  quotas,  culminating  in  the 


Guess 

who  pockets 

the  difference? 


1986  Immigration  Reform  and  Control  Act,  allowed 
2.5  million  illegal  entrants  to  become  legal  citizens; 
it  also  radically  altered  the  complexion  of  new  immi- 
grants. After  1970,  the  white  share  of  the  state's  popula- 
tion dropped  precipitously  (from  three-quarters  to 
one-half);  people  of  Latino  and  Asian  origins  tripled 
their  share;  and  the  African  American  population 
remained  at  about  7  percent.  During  these  decades, 
nonwhites  began  to  play  an  increasingly  active  role  in 
state  and  local  politics. 

Simultaneously,  the  California  economy  under- 
went a  series  of  wrenching  changes  that  became  very 
visible  during  the  1980s  and  1990s,  even  though  the  seeds 
of  change  had  taken  root  in  earlier  decades.  The  dein- 
dustrialization  phenomenon  closed  manufacturing 


plants  across  the  nation,  most  affecting  car  manufacture, 
steel  production,  and  other  heavy  industries.  California's 
adjustment  trauma  was  exacerbated  by  a  decline  in 
defense-related  expenditures  that  severely  depleted 
employment  opportunities  in  aircraft  manufacture,  ship- 
building, and  ancillary  industries.  Between  1991  and  1994 
(when  economic  recovery  began)  California  experienced 
a  net  domestic  out-migration  of  over  600,000  people, 
unprecedented  in  its  history. 

In  place  of  manufacturing,  service  industries 
sprouted  overnight  all  over  the  state,  including  retailing, 
information  and  financial  services,  and  similar  activities 
that  some  view  as  characteristic  of  a  "postindustrial" 
society.  The  most  fabled  success  story  of  this  economic 
restructuring  was,  of  course,  Silicon  Valley.^'  But  many 
other  places,  especially  in  Southern  California  (the 
"Silicon  Coast"),  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  the  computer 
revolution."  However,  California  boosters  often  over- 
look the  darker  side  of  this  high-tech  boom.  Many 
high-skill,  high-wage  jobs  were  being  created,  but  there 
was  an  even  larger  explosion  of  low-wage,  low-skill 
jobs.  For  example,  apparel  manufacturing  (often  involv- 
ing sweatshop  conditions)  employs  twice  as  many 
people  as  computer  manufacturing;  and  agriculture 
and  canning  engage  400,000  workers,  more  than  all  the 
high-tech  manufacturers  combined.'"  As  a  result,  the 
"new"  California  economy  is  increasingly  polarized 
between  rich  and  poor.  The  rising  tide  of  homelessness, 
first  noticed  in  the  early  1980s,  is  a  direct  result  of  this 
recession  and  restructuring."  In  addition,  the  federal 
government's  radical  undoing  of  the  nation's  welfare 
programs  during  the  1990s  hit  California's  major  cities 
especially  hard. 

Many  dark  clouds  conspired  to  hide  the  warm 
glow  brought  about  by  the  state's  much-vaunted 
economic  recovery.  A  persistent  mean-spiritedness  was 
evident  in  the  parade  of  ballot  initiatives  that  infested 
the  political  process  since  the  1978  tax  revolt.  In  1990, 
Proposition  140's  tight  legislative  term  limits  inspired  a 
game  of  "musical  seats"  among  state  and  local  politi- 
cians. Proposition  187  (1994)  brought  back  echoes  of  a 
century-long  xenophobia,  with  its  denial  of  schooling  to 
children  of  undocumented  immigrants  and  their  exclu- 
sion from  virtually  all  other  public  services.  Proposition 


209  (the  confusingly  titled  1996  "California  Civil  Rights 
Initiative")  prohibited  affirmative  action  in  public  edu- 
cation, contracting,  and  employment.  While  many  of 
the  propositions'  specifics  remain  subject  to  challenge 
in  the  courts,  government  by  initiative  is  now  firmly 
ensconced  as  part  of  the  political  artillery  of  advocates 
of  all  political  persuasions  in  California." 

According  to  Peter  Schrag,  California  shifted 
from  being  "a  national  model  of  high  civic  investment 
and  engagement"  in  the  1950s  and  1960s,  to  become 
"a  lodestar  of  tax  reduction  and  disinvestment"  in  the 
1980s  and  1990s."  The  single  most  important  dynamic 
in  this  transition  was  Proposition  13,  and  perhaps  its 
most  emblematic  moment  occurred  when  Orange 
County  declared  bankruptcy  on  December  6, 1994.  Local 
voters  adamantly  refused  to  approve  even  a  modest  tax 
increase  to  bail  themselves  out.'" 

Since  1769,  California's  history  has  been  an  ongoing 
narrative  about  conquest  and  immigration,  about 
resources  and  development.  Grabbed  by  the  United 
States  in  search  of  its  Manifest  Destiny,  the  state  of 
California  was,  quite  literally,  bulldozed  by  its  long 
twentieth  century.  At  breath-snatching  speed,  in  a  spec- 
tacular succession  of  material  and  metaphysical  revolu- 
tions, the  Golden  State  was  transformed  first  by  gold, 
then  by  green  gold  (agriculture),  black  gold  (oil),  gun- 
metal  gold  (defense  contracts),  and  now  e-gold  (high 
technology).  With  hindsight,  we  can  recognize  that  a 
new  kind  of  society  was  in  the  making  at  the  continent's 
isolated  edge,  brought  about  by  a  resdess  collision 


between  peoples  and  place.  As  the  twenty-first  century 
dawns,  the  rules  are  changing  again.  The  state's  multiple 
charismas  of  nature,  wealth,  diversity,  and  countercul- 
ture fold  into  one  another  to  create  an  incandescent 
galaxy  of  inventiveness  and  experimentation.  At  the 
same  time,  however,  one  cannot  escape  Joan  Didion's 
prescient  and  oft-quoted  reminder  about  California: 

The  mind  is  troubled  by  some  buried  but  ineradicable 
suspicion  that  things  had  better  work  here,  because 
here,  beneath  that  immense  bleached  sky,  is  where  we 
run  out  of  continent.^^ 

California  has  been  a  remarkably  lucky  island. 
Throughout  its  American  century,  the  state  has  avoided 
the  principal  depredations  of  the  past  one  hundred 
years — that  "most  murderous"  of  centuries  with  its 
dour  record  of  war,  famine,  and  genocide."  Now,  as 
the  global  geopolitical  balance  shifts  starkly  from  the 
Adantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  California  is  poised  to 
become  the  capital  of  America's  Pacific  Rim. 

It  goes  almost  without  saying  that  California  is 
a  test  bed  for  a  new  kind  of  American  society.  Even  as  a 
Proposition  13  mentality  persists,  the  state  remains  at 
the  forefront  of  the  nation's  environmental  conscious- 
ness, its  voters  elected  two  women  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  and  a  revitalized  labor  movement  looks  to 
California  for  its  lead.  The  precise  architecture  of  the 
twenty-first  century's  social  contract  remains  to  be 
uncovered,  but  one  of  its  principal  determinants  is 
already  abundantly  clear:  the  Latinization  of  the  state, 
most  evident  in  many  Southern  California  cities 


Los  Angeles  Fine  Arts  Squad 

(Victor  Henderson  and 
Terry  Schoonhoven) 
Isle  of  California,  1973, 
pencil  and  acrylic  on 
photograph 


(including  Los  Angeles)  where  Latinos  are  now  the 
majority  ethnic  group."  This  demographic  shift 
perhaps  represents  the  ultimate  legacy  of  the  Treaty  of 
Guadalupe  Hidalgo — a  peaceful  reconquest  of  Alta 
California. 

The  search  for  California's  twenty-first  century 
commenced  with  the  1992  civil  unrest  in  Los  Angeles 
that  followed  the  announcement  of  the  Rodney  King 
verdicts."  Much  has  been  written  about  these  events, 
the  worst  urban  violence  in  an  American  city  during  the 
twentieth  century.  Some  have  interpreted  the  clashes 
as  a  continuation  of  leftover  business  from  the  1965 
Watts  riots,  and  certainly  racism,  poverty,  and  discrimi- 
nation played  their  parts.  Others  have  regarded  1992 
not  as  a  "riot"  but  as  an  "uprising"  by  a  constellation  of 
marginalized  minorities,  prefiguring  an  emergent, 
reconstituted  social  order.  The  truth  is  most  probably 
somewhere  between;  the  events  of  1992  were  both  a 
residual  bitterness  and  a  novel  political  hybrid.  The  cry 
of  "No  justice,  no  peace"  that  greeted  the  King  verdicts 
was  an  expression  of  rage  at  a  manifest  injustice.  But 
the  multiculturalism  of  those  who  participated  in  the 
unrest  plus  the  reconstructive  efforts  that  followed  are 
indicative  of  something  different,  something  positive. 

Californians  remain  alert  to  Wallace  Stegner's 
challenge  to  create  a  civilization  worthy  of  its  setting, 
but  time  and  space  are  running  out.  The  Southern 
California  megalopolis,  extending  from  Santa  Barbara 
across  the  international  border  into  Baja  and  landward 
to  the  Inland  Empire,  is  already  a  single  urban  system. 
It  is  an  ecosocial  hybrid  based  on  no  single  heritage; 
it  can  be  defined  only  on  its  own  terms;  and  it  is  the 
city  of  the  future."  And  our  Golden  State  is  no  longer 
an  isolated  margin  but,  instead,  the  geographical  pivot 
of  America's  Pacific  century.  No  longer  an  exception 
to  the  rules  governing  urban  development,  it  is  instead 
the  prototype  of  a  burgeoning  multicultural,  urban 
America.  Watch  California.  Ready  or  not,  it  is  the  shape 
of  things  to  come. 


1  See  Joshua  Paddison,  ed.,  A  World 
Transformed:  Firsthand  Accounti  of  California 
before  the  Gold  Rush  (Berkeley:  Heyday 
Books,  1999),  intro.  The  Uterature  on 
California's  history  is  large  and  increasingly 
rich.  Kevin  Starr's  five  volumes  are  indispen- 
sable: Americans  and  the  California  Dream, 
1850-1915  (1973);  Inventing  the  Dream: 
California  through  the  Progressive  Era  (1985); 
Material  Dreams:  Southern  California  through 
the  J9J0S  (1990);  Endangered  Dreams:  Tlie 
Great  Pi-prcffion  in  I  ,i///,>M//,i  ( 1996);  and  The 
Drciiii  I  iiilurcy  (  nUfouiui  I  iih-n.  ihc  1940s 
(1997)  (New  York;  Oxford  University  Press). 

2  J.  S.  HoUiday,  Rush  for  Riches:  Gold  Fever 
and  the  Making  of  California  (Berkeley: 
Oakland  Museum  of  California  and 
University  of  California  Press,  1999),  chap.  1. 

3  A  careful  accounting  of  the  impact  of 
colonization  on  the  indigenous  populations 
of  Alta  California  is  to  be  found  in  Robert  H. 
Jackson  and  Edward  Castillo,  Indians, 
Franciscans,  and  Spanish  Colonization:  The 
Impact  of  the  Mission  System  on  California 
Indians  (Albuquerque:  University  of 

New  Mexico  Press,  1995).  See  also  Lillian 
McCawley,  Tlie  First  Angelenos:  The  Gabrielino 
Indians  of  Los  Angeles  (Banning:  Malki 
Museum  Press  and  Ballena  Press,  1996). 

4  See  Lisbeth  Haas,  Conquest  and  Historical 
Identities  in  California,  1769-1936  (Berkeley 
and  Los  Angeles:  University  of  California 
Press,  1955),  2-3,30-32,  37. 

5  Ibid.,  26-28,  43. 

6  The  significance  of  immigration  on 
Californian  identity  is  discussed  by  Doyce  B. 
Nunis  Jr.,  "Alta  California's  Trojan  Horse: 
Foreign  Immigration,"  in  Ramon  A.  Gutierrez 
and  Richard  J.  Orsi,  eds..  Contested  Eden: 
California  before  the  Gold  Rush  (Berkeley  and 
Los  Angeles:  University  of  California  Press, 
1998),  chap.  11. 

7  Richard  Henry  Dana  Jr.,  Two  Years  before 
the  Mast  {New  York:  Penguin  Books,  1981), 
quoted  and  discussed  in  Paddison,  A  World 
Transformed,  202. 

8  The  treaty  and  its  legacy  are  well  docu- 
mented in  Richard  Griswold  del  Castillo, 
The  Treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo:  A  Legacy  of 
Conflict  (Norman:  University  of  Oklahoma 
Press,  1990). 

9  Haas,  Conquest  and  Historical  Identities,  63, 
67.  77- 

10  Ibid.,  57-61- 

u  Leonard  Pitt,  The  Decline  of  the 
Californios:  A  Social  History  of  the  Spanish- 
Speaking  Californians,  1846-1890  (1966; 
reprint,  Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles:  University 
of  California  Press,  1998),  52-53- 

12  Quoted  in  Holliday,  Rush  for  Riches,  171. 

13  A  thorough  history  of  the  transformation 
of  Y'erba  Buena  is  Roger  W.  Lotchin, 

San  Francisco,  1846-1856:  From  Hamlet  to 
City  (1974;  reprint,  Urbana:  University  of 
Illinois  Press,  1998). 

14  Mel  Scott,  The  San  Francisco  Bay  Area: 
A  Metropolis  in  Perspective  ( Berkeley  and 
Los  Angeles:  University  of  California  Press, 
1985).  73- 

15  Richard  A.  Walker,  "California's  Golden 
Road  to  Riches:  Natural  Resources  and 
Regional  Capitalism,  1848-1940,"  Annals  of 
the  American  Association  of  Geographers 
(in  press). 


U  Carey  McWilliams,  Califonmi:  The 
Great  Exception  (1949;  reprint,  Berkeley  and 
Los  Angeles:  University  of  California  Press, 
1999).  25-  See  also  his  classic  account  Si'iilhcni 
California:  An  Island  on  the  Land  ( 1946; 
reprint.  Salt  Lake  City:  Peregrine  Smith 
Books,  1973). 

17  Quoted  in  Holliday,  Rmh  for  Riches,  29. 

18  Ibid. 

19  Ibid.,  227. 

20  Walker,  "California's  tioldon  Road  to 
Riches,"  25. 

21  Holliday,  Rush  for  Riches,  chap.  7. 

22  William  Fulton,  California:  Land  and 
Legacy  (Englewood,  Colo.:  Westcliffe 
Publishers,  1998),  44. 

23  Stephen  lohnson,  Cerald  Haslam,  and 
Robert  Dawson,  The  Great  Central  Valley: 
California's  Heartland  (Berkeley  and 

Los  Angeles:  University  of  California  Press, 
1993).  41- 

24  Holliday,  Rush  for  Riches,  ijy. 

25  Ibid. 

26  For  a  brief  history  of  the  railroad  in 
Northern  California,  see  Holliday,  Rush  for 
Riches,  229-43;  for  California  as  a  whole 
the  standard  account  is  William  Deverell, 
Railroad  Crossing:  Californians  and  the 
Railroad,  1850-1910  (Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles: 
University  of  California  Press,  1994).  The 
anti-Chinese  movement  is  recounted  in 
Alexander  Saxton,  The  Indispensable  Enemy: 
Labor  and  the  Anti-Chinese  Movement  in 
California  (1971;  reprint,  Berkeley  and 

Los  Angeles:  University  of  California  Press, 
1995)- 

27  Johnson,  Haslam,  and  Dawson,  The  Great 
Central  Valley,  41. 

28  Fulton,  California,  46. 

29  Quoted  in  Johnson,  Haslam,  and  Dawson, 
The  Great  Central  Valley,  47. 

30  For  a  classic  account  of  water  in  the 
American  West,  consult  Marc  Reisner, 
Cadillac  Desert:  The  American  West  and  Its 
Disappearing  Water,  rev.  ed.  (New  York: 
Penguin  Books,  1993).  See  also  Donald 
Worster,  Rivers  of  Empire:  Water,  Aridity,  and 
the  Growth  of  the  American  West  (New  York: 
Pantheon  Books,  1985). 

31  Johnson,  Haslam,  and  Dawson,  The  Great 
Central  Valley,  45. 

32  Pitt,  The  Decline  of  the  Calfornios,  249. 

33  Edward  W.  Soja  and  Allen  J.  Scott, 
"Introduction  to  Los  Angeles:  City  and 
Region,"  in  Allen  J.  Scott  and  Edward  W.  Soja, 
eds.,  The  City:  Los  Angeles  and  Urban  Theory 
at  the  End  of  the  Twentieth  Century  {Berkeley 
and  Los  Angeles:  University  of  California 
Press,  1996),  chap.  1. 

34  Phoebe  S.  Kropp,  "'There  is  a  little 
sermon  in  that':  Constructing  the  Native 
Southwest  at  the  San  Diego  Panama- 
California  Exposition  of  1915,"  in  Marta 
Weigle  and  Barbara  A.  Babcock,  eds..  The 
Great  Southwest  of  the  Fred  Harvey  Company 
and  the  Santa  Fe  Railway  (Phoenix:  Heard 
Museum,  1996),  36-46. 

35  For  a  sweeping  perspective  on  land  devel- 
opment in  California  during  the  twentieth 
century,  see  Stephanie  S.  Pincetl, 
Transforming  California:  A  Political  History 
of  Land  Use  and  Dcve/opm(?«f  (Bahimore: 
Johns  Hopkins  University  Press,  1999). 

The  case  of  Southern  California  in  the  late 


twentieth  century  is  dramatically  invoked 
by  Mike  Davis,  Ecology  of  Fear:  Los  Angeles 
and  the  Imagination  of  Disaster  (New  York: 
Metropolitan  Books,  1998). 

36  ("alifornia's  Progressive  Era  is  reviewed  in 
William  Deverell  and  Tom  Sitton,  eds., 
California  Progressivism  Revisited  (ViCxV.c\cy 
and  Los  Angeles:  University  of  California 
Press,  1994);  for  the  case  of  Southern 
California  the  authoritative  account  is  Mike 
Davis,  City  of  Quartz:  Excavating  the  Future  of 
Los  Angeles  (New  York:  Verso  Books,  1990). 

37  A  good  overview  of  the  culture  and 
history  of  Hollywood  is  provided  by  Richard 
Maltby,  Hollywood  Cinema  (Oxford: 
Blackwell  Publishers,  1995). 

38  For  one  quirky  account  of  Hollywood 
urbanism,  see  Creg  Williams,  The  Story  of 
Hollywoodland  {Los,  Angeles:  Papavasilopoulos 
Press,  1992). 

39  See,  for  instance,  Stephanie  Barron,  et  al.. 
Exiles  and  Emigres:  The  Flight  of  European 
Artists  from  Hitler  {Los  Angeles:  Los  Angeles 
County  Museum  of  Art,  1997). 

40  The  classic  narratives  of  the  birth  of 
Los  Angeles  urbanism  in  the  early  twentieth 
century  are  Robert  M.  Fogelson,  The 
Fragmented  Metropolis:  Los  Angeles,  1850-1930 
(1967;  reprint,  Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles: 
University  of  California  Press,  1993);  and 
Greg  Hise,  Magnetic  Los  Angeles:  Planning  the 
Twentieth  Century  (Baltimore:  Johns  Hopkins 
University  Press,  1997).  An  excellent  account 
of  San  Francisco's  urban  history  is  by  Gray 
Brechin,  Imperial  San  Francisco:  Urban  Power, 
Earthly  Ruin  (Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles: 
University  of  California  Press,  1999).  See 
also  Philip  J.  Ethington,  The  Public  City:  The 
Political  Construction  of  Urban  Life  in  San 
Francisco,  1850-1900  (Cambridge:  Cambridge 
University  Press,  1994). 

41  Scott  Bottles,  Los  Angeles  and  the 
Automobile:  The  Making  of  the  Modern  City 
(Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles:  University  of 
California  Press,  1987). 

42  Two  excellent  accounts  of  the  architectural 
consequences  of  automobilization  are  those 
by  Richard  Longstreth,  City  Center  to 
Regional  Mall:  Architecture,  the  Automobile, 
and  Retaihng  in  Los  Angeles,  1920-1950 
(Cambridge:  mit  Press,  1997);  and  The  Drive- 
in,  the  Supermarket,  and  the  Transformation 
of  Commercial  Space  in  Los  Angeles,  1914-1941 
(Cambridge:  mix  Press,  1999). 

43  A  colorful  history  of  the  oil  era  in 
Southern  California  is  by  Jules  Tygiel, 
The  Great  Los  Angeles  Swindle:  Oil,  Stocks, 
and  Scandal  during  the  Roaring  Twenties 
(New  York:  Oxford  University  Press,  1994). 

44  On  Mexican  repatriation  and  the  Okies, 
I  recommend  the  following:  Francisco  E. 
Balderrama  and  Raymond  Rodriguez, 
Decade  of  Betrayal:  Mexican  Repatriation 
in  the  1930s  (Albuquerque:  University  of 
New  Mexico  Press,  1995);  and  James  Gregory, 
American  Exodus:  The  Dust  Bowl  Migration 
and  Okie  Culture  in  California  (New  York: 
Oxford  University  Press,  1989). 

45  The  progress  and  legacy  of  the  New  Deal 
in  Southern  California's  landscapes  is 
reported  in  Starr,  Endangered  Dreams,  chaps. 
10-13. 

46  See  Roger  W.  Lotchin,  Fortress  California, 
1910-1961:  From  Warfare  to  Welfare  (New  York: 


Oxford  University  Press,  1992). 

47  Marilynn  S.  lohnson.  The  Second  Gold 
Rush:  Oakland  and  the  East  Bay  in  World 
War  //  (Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles:  University 
of  California  Press,  1993). 

48  For  a  brief  account  of  the  Bay  Area's  war 
industries,  see  Scott,  The  San  Francisco  Bay 
Area,  chap.  15;  also  Johnson,  The  Second 
Gold  Rush. 

49  A  beautifully  illustrated  and  wide-ranging 
account  of  the  impact  of  wartime  on  the 
built  environment  of  California  is  the  collec- 
tion of  essays  in  Donald  Albrecht,  ed.. 
World  War  II  and  the  American  Dream: 
How  Wartime  Building  Changed  a  Nation 
(Washington,  D.C.:  National  Building 
Museum  and  mit  Press,  1995). 

50  The  standard  account  of  the  Mexican 
experience  in  Southern  California  is  George  J. 
Sanchez,  Becoming  Mexican  American: 
Ethnicity,  Culture,  and  Identity  in  Chicano 
Los  Angeles,  1900-1945  (New  York:  Oxford 
University  Press,  1993). 

51  See  Ronald  Takaki,  Strangers  from  a 
Different  Shore:  A  History  of  Asian  Americans 
(New  York:  Penguin  Books,  1989),  chap.  10. 

52  A  brief  account  of  the  Bay  Area  in  the 
1960s  is  Charles  Wollenberg,  Golden  Gate 
Metropolis:  Perspectives  on  Bay  Area  History 

{ Berkeley:  Institute  of  Governmental  Studies, 
1985),  chap.  19.  A  provocative  and  engaging 
reappraisal  of  the  legacy  of  this  era  is  con- 
tained in  James  Brook,  Chris  Carlsson, 
and  Nancy  J.  Peters,  eds..  Reclaiming 
San  Francisco:  History,  Politics,  and  Culture 
(San  Francisco:  City  Lights  Books,  1998). 

53  See  Pincetl,  Transforming  California, 
chaps.  4-5. 

54  An  interesting  perspective  on  this  well- 
documented  event  is  by  David  Wyatt,  Five 
Fires:  Race,  Catastrophe,  and  the  Shaping  of 
California  (New  York:  Oxford  University 
Press,  1997),  chap.  8. 

55  Peter  Schrag,  Paradise  Lost:  California's 
Experience,  America's  Future  (New  York: 
New  Press,  1998),  10.  Schrag's  is  the  most  pen- 
etrating account  of  this  period  in  California 
politics. 

56  Ibid. 

57  A  comprehensive  balance  sheet  of 
Proposition  13's  first  five  years  is  drawn  up  by 
Terry  Schwadron  and  Paul  Richter,  California 
and  the  American  Tax  Revolt:  Proposition  13 
Five  Years  Laftr  (Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles: 
University  of  California  Press,  1984). 

58  The  best  scholarly  account  of  what  went 
into  producing  Silicon  Valley  is  by  AnnaLee 
Saxenian,  Regional  Advantage:  Culture  and 
Competition  in  Silicon  Valley  and  Route  128 
(Cambridge:  Harvard  University  Press,  1994). 

59  An  influential  analysis  of  Southern 
California's  "technopoles"  is  by  Allen  J.  Scott, 
Technopolis:  High-Technology  Industry  and 
Regional  Development  in  Southern  California 
(Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles:  University  of 
California  Press,  1993). 

60  Schrag,  Paradise  Lost,  113. 

61  The  connection  between  global  forces  and 
local  outcomes  in  the  case  of  homelessness 
in  Los  Angeles  is  explored  by  Jennifer  Wolch 
and  Michael  Dear,  Malign  Neglect:  Homeless- 
ness in  an  American  City  (San  Francisco: 
lossey-Bass,  1993). 

62  Once  again,  let  me  recommend  Schrag's 


Paradise  Lost  as  the  best  overview  of  "propo- 
sition politics"  in  late-twentieth-century 
California. 

63  Ibid.,  275. 

64  A  useful  retelling  of  the  Orange  County 
bankruptcy  is  Mark  Baldassare,  When 
Government  Fails:  The  Orange  County 
Bankruptcy  (Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles: 
University  of  California  Press,  1998). 

65  Joan  Didion,  Slouching  toward  Bethlehem 
(New  York:  Noonday  Press,  1990),  172. 

66  The  phrase  is  from  Eric  Hobsbawm, 
The  Age  of  Extremes:  A  History  of  the  World, 
1914-1991  (New  York:  Vintage  Books,  1994), 
one  of  the  most  insightful  (if  somewhat  pes- 
simLstic)  histories  of  the  twentieth  century 
yet  to  appear. 

67  The  Latinization  of  Los  Angeles  is  dis- 
cussed in  Gustavo  Leclerc,  Raiil  Villa,  and 
Michael  Dear,  eds..  Urban  Latino  Cultures: 
La  vida  latina  en  L.A.  (Thousand  Oaks:  Sage 
Publications,  1999). 

68  For  a  detailed  appraisal  of  the  genesis 
and  impact  of  the  Rodney  King  beating, 
trials,  and  aftermath  see  Lou  Cannon, 
Official  Negligence:  How  Rodney  King  and 
the  Riots  Changed  Los  Angeles  and  the  lapd 
(New  York:  Times  Books,  1997). 

69  There  is  much  debate  about  California's 
urban  future.  See,  for  example,  Michael  Dear, 
The  Postmodern  Urban  Condition  (Oxford: 
Blackwell  Publishers,  2000),  as  well  as  the 
collections  of  essays  in  Scott  and  Soja,  The 
City,  and  Michael  Dear,  H.  Eric  Schockman, 
and  Greg  Hise,  eds..  Rethinking  Los  Angeles 
(Thousand  Oaks:  Sage  Publications,  1996). 

Acknowledgments 

I  am  grateful  to  friends  at  lacma  for  inviting 
me  to  become  engaged  in  this  project,  espe- 
cially Stephanie  Barron,  Paul  Holdengraber, 
and  Sheri  Bernstein.  Thomas  Frick,  Nola 
Butler,  and  Garrett  White  provided  useful 
guidance  that  assisted  me  in  the  preparation 
of  this  essay.  I  am  especially  indebted  to 
Phoebe  Kropp,  who  prepared  many  docu- 
ments and  materials  that  both  informed  and 
challenged  my  understanding.  Thanks  also 
to  Greg  Hise,  Selma  Holo,  Gustavo  Leclerc, 
Aandrea  Stang,  Kevin  Starr,  Dick  Walker,  and 
Jennifer  Wolch,  whose  advice  and  comments 
transformed  my  understanding  of  our 
Golden  State,  and  this  essay.  Dallas  Dishman 
assisted  in  preparing  images;  I  am  grateful 
to  all  those  who  granted  permission  for  us  to 
use  them.  None  of  the  individuals  mentioned 
in  this  note  is  responsible  for  any  errors  or 
interpretive  aberrations  that  may  adorn 
this  essay. 


-■fVV" 


LATE 
VALENCIAS^l 


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SELLING  CALIFORNIA    1900-1920 


Sheri  Bernstein 


Crate  label  for  £1  Capitan 
brand  oranges,  San  Dimas 
Orange  Growers  Associotior 
n.d.  Lent  by  the  McClelland 
Collection 


California  officially  became  the  Golden  State  in  the  1960s,  but  its  image  in 
the  popular  imagination  was  never  more  singularly  golden  than  during  the 
first  two  decades  of  the  twentieth  century.  Nor  did  the  arts  ever  play  a 
more  pivotal  role  in  the  gilding  of  California.  With  remarkably  few  excep- 
tions, artists  and  writers  from  the  turn  of  the 
century  through  the  1910s,  along  with  California's 
promoters  in  industry,  regional  government,  and 
the  press,  embraced  a  vision  of  the  state  as  the 
quintessential  Garden  of  America,  an  unspoiled 
and  bountiful  paradise.  This  powerful  Edenic 
vision  has  proven  even  more  enduring  than  the 
notion  of  the  Wild  West  associated  with  the  Gold 
Rush  period.  It  lies  at  the  heart  of  myriad  booster 
images — used  here  to  mean  propagandistically 
positive  conceptions,  often  serving  the  interests 
of  the  white  mainstream — that  to  varying 
degrees  have  persisted  in  shaping  popular  visions 
of  the  state  and  in  influencing  artistic  production 
to  the  present  day. 

On  first  consideration  it  might  seem 
curious  that  an  expressly  premodern,  Edenic 
conception  of  California  was  so  pervasive  from 
1900  through  the  1910s,  given  that  significant 
portions  of  the  state,  like  other  areas  in  the  coun- 
try, had  already  experienced  or  were  then  in  the 
throes  of  urbanization  and  industrial  develop- 
ment. San  Francisco  was  already  a  considerable 
metropolis  of  343,000  at  the  turn  of  the  century, 
growing  to  500,000  by  1920;  Los  Angeles's  popu- 
lation mushroomed  from  102,000  in  1900  to 
over  550,000  in  1920,  with  a  100  percent  increase 
in  manufacturing  registered  between  1900  and 
1910  alone.' 

The  droves  of  white  middle-class  tourists 
and  new  residents  then  descending  on  California — 
many  of  whom  were  Midwesterners  leaving  their 
farms  to  resettle  in  cities^ — had  a  psychological 
need  to  see  the  region  as  free  of  the  complexities 
and  ills  of  modern  life.  Newcomers  were  often  of 
retirement  age  and  sought  to  enjoy  their  final  days 
leisurely  in  a  private  bungalow  in  the  sun.  Many 


of  the  region's  copious  tourists — the  word  tourist 
was  probably  coined  in  Southern  California 
during  the  nineteenth  century' — were  looking 
for  a  healthful  respite  from  the  frantic  pace  and 
ubiquitous  grime  of  everyday  urban  living.  It  is 
understandable,  then,  that  the  state's  transporta- 
tion, tourist,  and  agricultural  industries,  its 
chambers  of  commerce,  and  its  powerful  individ- 
ual boosters  exerted  enormous  effort  to  present 
white  Midwestern  audiences  with  precisely  the 
idyllic  images  of  California  they  craved,  even 
amid  the  massive  development  of  the  region. 
Promises  of  personal  well-being  and  financial 
prosperity  were  among  the  most  popular  and 
effective  selling  strategies.  "Oranges  for  Health — 
California  for  Wealth,"  the  slogan  for  a  1907  pro- 
motional campaign  organized  by  the  California 
Fruit  Growers  Exchange  and  financed  by  the 
Southern  Pacific  Railroad  to  attract  lowans,  is 
a  typical  example." 

At  times  the  sunny,  boosterist  conceptions 
of  California  had  explicitly  racist  overtones. 
One  of  the  region's  unwavering  proponents, 
Massachusetts-born  newspaperman  and 
Southwest  Museum  founder  Charles  Fletcher 
Lummis,  championed  Southern  California  in  his 
widely  read  magazine.  Land  of  Sunshine  (later 
renamed  Out  West),  as  "the  new  Eden  of  the 
Saxon  home-seeker."  Further,  he  boasted  of 
Los  Angeles  in  1895  that  "the  ignorant,  hopelessly 
un-American  type  of  foreigner  which  infests  and 
largely  controls  Eastern  cities  is  almost  unknown 
here."^  Indeed,  for  many  of  the  new  Anglo 
arrivals,  the  image  of  California  as  unaffected  by 
the  massive  immigration  from  southern  and 
eastern  Europe  then  changing  the  complexion  of 
the  country's  major  East  Coast  and  Midwestern 
urban  centers  was  a  strong  attraction.  While  it 
is  true  that  California  was  home  to  few  European 
immigrants  during  these  years,  its  urban  popula- 
tion was  in  fact  quite  heterogeneous  ethnically. 


1  9  B  0     >    The  Automobile  Club  of  Southern  California  is  formed.    >    Suspicions  of  an  outbreak  of  bubonic  plague  in  San  Francisco's  Chinatown  lead  health  officials  to  quarantine  all  Chinese  living  in  a  seven-bli 


California  for  the  Settler, 
brochure  produced  by  the 
Southern  Pacific  Railroad, 
1911.  Lent  bytheSeaver 
Center  for  Western  History 
Research 


©(Q)ig<3?2!I^1^SI    IPMJ^'S.WE'm 


with  sizable  numbers  of  Mexicans,  Japanese, 
and  African  Americans  in  Los  Angeles  and  a 
large  community  of  Chinese  in  San  Francisco.' 
Generally,  however,  the  California  image  pro- 
mulgated by  boosters  was  ostensibly  more 
benign  than  Lummis's,  aimed  at  enticing  the 
broadest  possible  spectrum  of  the  populace. 

To  a  considerable  degree,  as  Susan 
Landauer  has  persuasively  argued  with  respect 
to  plein  air  landscape  painting  in  Southern 
California,  artists  of  the  period  participated 
either  consciously  or  unconsciously  in  this 
discourse  of  California  boosterism.'  Reasons 
for  this  are  easy  to  come  by.  First,  many  of  the 
artists  were  themselves  newcomers  to  the 
state — most  of  the  plein  air  painters,  for  exam- 
ple, were  recent  arrivals  from  the  Midwest  and 
the  East — and  were  undoubtedly  swayed  in 
their  perceptions  of  the  region  by  the  same 
promotional  strategies  that  had  attracted  others. 
Second,  from  a  more  practical  standpoint, 
there  was  a  staggering  market  for  such  images, 
both  regionally  and  nationally  One  of  the  most 
insightful  and  prescient  commentators  on  the 
state,  journalist  and  lawyer  Carey  McWilliams, 
remarked  that  "many  of  [the  Southern 
California  painters]  saw  the  region  through 
glasses  colored  by  subsidies."*  The  Southern 
Pacific  and  Santa  Fe  railroads  sponsored  trips 
for  numerous  artists  in  exchange  for  scenic 
paintings  and  photographs  of  the  California 


landscape  that  could  be  exhibited  in  railway 
stations  across  the  country.  Moreover,  the  state's 
two  most  important  promotional  magazines — 
Sunset,  founded  in  San  Francisco  in  1898  by  the 
Southern  Pacific  Railroad,  and  Lummis's  Land  of 
Sunshine,  financed  by  the  Los  Angeles  Chamber 
of  Commerce — often  featured  work  by  artists 
and  writers  that  glorified  the  California  land- 
scape. In  addition,  many  of  the  newly  con- 
structed tourist  hotels,  including  the  Hotel 
Del  Coronado  in  San  Diego,  the  Hotel  Del  Monte 
in  Monterey,  and  the  Mission  Inn  in  Riverside, 
boasted  their  own  art  galleries  and  regularly 
held  exhibitions  seen  by  tourists  and  locals  that 
featured  landscape  paintings.  Without  question, 
then,  there  was  a  healthy  demand  for  scenic, 
picturesque  views  of  California. 

Conversely,  no  real  market  existed  for 
images  that  pictured  the  state  in  urban  terms, 
which  might  have  paralleled  work  then  being 
produced  on  the  East  Coast,  such  as  the  Ashcan 
School's  gritty  scenes  of  New  York  City  life.  The 
comparatively  few  urban  images  of  California 
produced  during  these  years  were  principally 
photographs,  often  depicting  the  devastation 
wreaked  by  the  1906  San  Francisco  earthquake. 
Even  William  Coulter's  highly  anomalous  paint- 
ing of  the  fire  that  accompanied  the  earthquake 
and  consumed  the  city  is  ultimately  a  coastal 
scene  rather  than  an  urban  one.  Moreover, 
although  this  depiction  initially  appears  apoca- 
lyptic, with  smoke  dramatically  billowing  from 
the  shore  and  blackening  the  sky.  Coulter's 
intention  was  to  put  a  positive  spin  on  the 
catastrophe.  His  subject  is  San  Francisco's  suc- 
cessful maritime  rescue  of  more  than  30,000 
of  its  residents  from  the  flaming  city.' 


The  Chinese  Merchants'  Association  reassures  frightened  tourists.    >    California  Camera  Club  begins  publication  of  Camera  Craft.    >    Katherine  Tingley,  known  as  the  Purple  Mother,  moves  headquarters  of  the 


Dana  and  Towers  William  A.  Coulter 

Photography  Studio  San  Francisco  Burning, 

"121    Looking  East  on  Market  April  18,  1906,  1907,  oil 

Street,  1906,  gelatm-silver  canvas 


Theosophical  Society  to  Point  Loma,  on  San  Diego  Bay.     >    19  0  1     >     Henr;/  Huntington  organizes  Pacific  Electric  Railway  Company,  a  new  interurban  transit  system.  In  Los  flngeles  the  trains  are  called  Red  Cars. 


John  O'Sheo 

The  Madrone,  1921,  oil  on 


Guy  Rose 

The  Old  Oak  Tree, 
oil  on  canvas 


Marion  (Kavonoufh)  Wochtel 

Sunset  Clouds  "5,  1904, 
wotercolor  on  paper 


Oscar  Maurer 

Eucalyptus  Grove  Silhouetted 
against  a  Cloudy  Sky,  Golden 
Gate  Park,  San  Francisco, 
c.  1915,  gelatin-silver  print 


Gustave  Boumann 

VJindswept  Sucalpytu 
C.1929,  color  woodci 


In  addition  to  perpetuating  an  escapist, 
premodern  vision  of  California  that  eschewed 
regional  realities  as  well  as  monumental  interna- 
tional events  such  as  World  War  I,  scenic 
California  images  of  this  period  share  other 
traits.  Compared  with  nineteenth-century 
California  landscapes,  generally  grand  panoramic 
vistas  intended  to  communicate  nature's  sublim- 
ity, early-twentieth-century  variants  tend  to  be 
smaller  in  size  and  narrower  in  visual  scope, 
focusing  on  a  small  expanse  of  terrain  or  a  single 
tree,  as  in  John  O'Shea's  The  Madrone.  They 
aim  less  at  elevating  nature  than  at  conveying  a 
readily  accessible,  consumable  vision  of  it.  In 
part,  these  differences  bespeak  a  shift  in  the 
country  at  large  toward  a  more  bourgeois — or 
touristic,  consumer-oriented — sensibility  among 
patrons  and  producers  of  the  arts.  Yet  California 
landscapes  do  stand  apart  from  other  scenic 
American  paintings  of  the  period,  specifically  in 
the  frequency  with  which  they  present  a  "virgin 
land,"  untouched  by  modern  life.'" 


onal  Reclamation  Act  passes,  funding  irrigation  projects.  East  Coast  manufacturers  tiope  that  an  expanded  agrarian  West  will  create  new  markets  for  their  goods.     >    In  California,  the  turn  of  the  century  it 


pi^ 

pjS 

■'  %>^^^y%^: 

eB*'ids:r  j*s 


rked  by  tremendous  industrial  innovation,  particularly  in  mining,  shipping,  logging,  and  farming.    >    San  Francisco  waterfront  workers  strike  on  July  30,  imrnobilijing  maritime  trade  for  three  months.    >    South 


Frances  Hommel  Gearhort 

William  Wendt 

Califorrtia:  The  Campers' 

John  Marshall  Gamble 

Leopold  Hugo 

On  the  Salinas  River,  1920s, 

Where  Nature's  God  Hath 

Paradise,  brochure  produced 

Breaking  Fog,  Hope  Ranch, 

Untitled,  c.  1920 

color  woodcut 

Wrought,  1925,  oil  on  canvas 

by  the  Southern  Pacific 
Railroad,  1909.  Lent  by  the 
Cahfornia  State  Railroad 

Santa  Barbara,  c.  1908, 
oil  on  canvas 

bichromate  print 

The  motif  of  the  virgin  land  is  common 
to  an  otherwise  diverse  array  of  images  of 
Cahfornia  produced  at  the  time,  including  Guy 
Rose's  Impressionist  rendering  of  a  Southern 
California  oak  tree  in  dappled  light;  Frances 
Gearhart's  highly  decorative,  Japanese-inspired 
color  wood-block  print  of  the  Salinas  River;  and 
Oscar  Maurer's  moody  Pictorialist  photograph 
of  a  eucalyptus  grove  in  Golden  Gate  Park.  Only 
a  tiny  farmhouse  dots  the  landscape  in  William 
Wendt's  exalted  view  of  a  California  mountain- 
side, hi  the  words  of  the  Bavarian-born  Wendt, 
who  had  lived  in  Chicago  before  coming  to 
California  as  a  tourist  in  the  1890s,  "Here,  away 
from  conflicting  creeds  and  sects,  away  from  the 
soul-destroying  hurly-burly  of  life,  it  feels  that 


the  world  is  beautiful;  that  man  is  his  brother; 
that  God  is  good.""  Despite  its  spiritual  inspira- 
tion, Wendt's  painting  echoes  images  featured 
in  promotional  materials,  such  as  the  Southern 
Pacific  Railroad  brochure  California:  The 
Campers'  Paradise,  in  its  boldly  composed, 
celebratory  vision  of  the  California  landscape. 


Railroad  converts  from  coal  to  fuel  oil,  the  beginning  of  a  new  market  for  the  burgeoning  oil  industry.   >     1902    >    California  Society  of  Artists  is  founded  in  San  Francisco.   >    Charles  Fletcher  Lummis  become 


.^^ 


chairman  of  the  Sequoya  League,  a  philanthropic  organization  providing  aid  to  Native  flmerlcans.    >     190  3    >    Greek  Theater  Is  dedicated  at  Berkeley,    >    Carmel-by-the-Sea  Is  established  as  an  arts  colon 


9  04    >    Developer  flbbot  Kinney  completes  Venice,  California,  a  resort  with  canals  and  gondolas  in  imitation  of  its  Italian  namesake     >    San  Diego  Art  fissociation  is  founded 


William  Dassonville  Underwood  and  Underwood 

Half  Dome  and  Clouds,  Publishers 

Merced  River,  Yosemite  Valley,  /osemite  Valley,  1902, 

c.  1905,  platinum  print  stereograph 


One  of  the  premier  tourist  destinations 
for  Americans  by  the  turn  of  the  century  was 
Yosemite,  billed  as  "Our  National  Playground" 
after  its  establishment  as  a  national  park  in  1890. 
The  creation  of  the  park  transpired  through  the 
efforts  of  two  unlikely  allies — the  Southern 
Pacific  Railroad,  which  featured  Yosemite  in  the 
first  issue  of  Sunset,  and  the  Sierra  Club, 
cofounded  by  renowned  naturalist  John  Muir 
in  1892.  Indeed,  the  principal  contention  over 
the  fate  of  the  parklands  was  not  between  the 
naturalists  and  the  railroads.  Rather,  it  was 
between  the  naturalists  and  those  who  viewed 
the  region  as  an  answer  to  San  Francisco's  need 
for  water,  a  need  that  continued  to  plague  the 
entire  state  over  the  course  of  the  century.  At 
stake  in  particular  was  the  proposed  use  of  the 
Hetch  Hetchy  Valley,  adjacent  to  Yosemite  Valley, 
as  a  reservoir  site.  Muir  and  his  allies  vehemently 
opposed  the  idea,  and  in  1907  Muir  urged  the 
public  to  send  letters  of  protest  to  the  federal 
government.'^  The  proposal's  advocates  dissemi- 
nated literature  supporting  their  position — for 
example,  a  brochure  illustrated  with  altered  pho- 
tographs approximating  what  the  valley  would 
look  like  submerged  under  water — and  claimed 
that  the  reservoir  would  only  enhance  the  park's 
scenic  appeal."  After  a  protracted  and  bitter 
debate,  the  Hetch  Hetchy  proposal  passed  in  1913. 

While  Albert  Bierstadt  and  others  had 
painted  spectacular  majestic  views  of  Yosemite 


Valley  in  the  nineteenth  century,  it  was  predomi- 
nantly among  photographers  that  Yosemite 
remained  a  popular  artistic  subject  in  the  early 
1900S.  Following  in  the  footsteps  of  Carleton 
Watkins,  photographers  such  as  William 
Dassonville  created  images  of  the  park  that  were 
exhibited  and  published  as  fine  art  while  also 
promoting  Yosemite  to  high-end  audiences  as  a 
place  to  visit.  Disseminated  to  a  broader  public, 
stereographic  images  produced  by  the  company 
of  Underwood  and  Underwood  also  appeared  on 
postcards  and  other  souvenir  materials.  Unlike 
nineteenth-century  variants,  these  photographs 
often  contain  one  or  two  figures  dramatically 
posed  at  a  scenic  vista^for  example,  at  the 
edge  of  Yosemite's  famed  Overhanging  Rock — 
through  whom  the  viewer  vicariously  experi- 
ences the  scene.  The  fact  that  both  popular  and 
fine-art  images  promoted  Yosemite  to  actual 
and  potential  visitors — paving  the  way  for  the 
subsequent  work  of  Ansel  Adams — reveals  that 
the  arts  and  California's  booster  industries 
functioned  in  tandem  in  fostering  tourism  and 
outdoor  recreation  in  the  state.'" 


19  0  5    >    California  legislature  passes  an  anti-Japanese  resolution  ttiat  calls  upon  Congress  to  limit  Japanese  immigration. 


906    >    Five  hundred  are  dead  or  missing  in  San  Francis 


Selden  Conner  Gile 

Boat  and  Yellow  Hills, 


William  Keith 

Looking  across  the  Golden 
Gate  from  Mount  Tamalpan 
c.  1895,  oil  on  canvas 


Maurice  Braun 

Moonrise  over  San  Diego  I 
1915,  oil  on  canvas 


Haruyo  Matsui,  Coronado  as 
Seen  through  Japanese  Eyes, 
booklet,  c.  1910.  Lent  by 
the  Southwest  Museum, 
Los  Angeles 


Vacation  Land,  brochure 
produced  by  the  Santa  Fe 
Railroad,  1915.  Lent  by  the 
Seaver  Center  for  Western 
History  Research 


Even  more  frequently  than  inland  locales, 
the  celebrated  California  coastline  was  presented 
in  the  arts  as  an  utterly  vacant  and  untouched 
paradise,  despite  the  explosion  of  seaside  leisure 
and  real  estate  development  by  the  early  1900s. 
Here,  too,  although  artists  adopted  a  wide  range 
of  stylistic  approaches — from  William  Keith's 
misty  view  of  San  Francisco's  Golden  Gate 
painted  in  the  Barbizon  tradition  to  the  lumi- 
nous rendering  of  San  Diego's  shoreline  by 
plein  air  painter  Maurice  Braun — they  almost 
always  eliminated  signs  of  a  human  presence. 
In  contrast,  human  figures  did  appear  in  materi- 
als promoting  coastal  tourism,  where — as  in 
William  H.  Bull's  poster  for  Monterey's  Hotel 
Del  Monte — they  were  generally  engaged  in  such 
elite  leisure  pursuits  as  golf  or  polo. 

The  absence  of  such  references  to  human 
activity  in  California  plein  air  painting,  as 
Landauer  has  noted,  is  one  of  the  important 
factors  that  distinguishes  it  from  the  frequently 
leisure-filled  scenes  by  the  Impressionists  work- 
ing in  Europe  and  on  the  East  Coast.''^  By  creat- 
ing images  of  a  pristine,  uninhabited  coastline, 
California  artists  enabled  viewers  to  imagine 
themselves  according  to  their  own  desires, 
unencumbered  by  such  contemporary  realities  as 
tourists,  hotels,  residences,  and  local  industry. 
When  these  artists  did  include  signs  of  humanity 
in  their  works — and  this  was  the  case  even 
with  modernists  such  as  Selden  Conner  Gile,  a 
member  of  the  Northern  California-based 
Society  of  Six — they  generally  depicted  quaint 
villages  or  seaports  rather  than  scenes  of  indus- 
trialized, modern  life.  This  choice  bespeaks  a 
pervasive  nostalgia  for  an  earlier  halcyon  period 
among  the  region's  artists,  an  impulse  not  as 
evident  among  European  and  East  Coast 
Impressionists,  who  generally  sought  to  record 
the  contemporary  world." 


;quent  fire   fin  area  of  four  square  miles  is  destroyed,  including  30,000  buildings.  Damage  is  estimated  at  ?500  million.   >    Fourteen  thousand  Japanese  laborers  are  employed  as  section  hands  on  western  railroads, 


One  of  the  key  coastal  spots  for  creative 
figures  as  well  as  tourists  and  new  residents  was 
the  Monterey  Peninsula,  and  particularly  the 
quaint  town  of  Carmel-by-the-Sea.  Founded  in 
1903  by  real  estate  developers  who  promoted  it 
as  an  artist  colony,  Carmel  became  a  particularly 
attractive  refuge  for  Bay  Area  artists  and  literati 
following  the  earthquake  and  fires  that  ravaged 
San  Francisco  in  1906.  In  1910  a  Los  Angeles 
Times  headline  facetiously  characterized  Carmel 
as  the  "Hotbed  of  Soulful  Culture,  Vortex  of 
Erotic  Erudition . . .  Where  Author  and  Artist 
Folk  Are  Establishing  the  Most  Amazin 
Colony  on  Earth."" 


and  38,000  workers  are  ,n  the  fields  at  the  peak  of  harvest  season,  mostly  in  California.     >     19  0  7     >    California  progressive  Republicans  form  the  Lincoln-Roosevelt  League,  whose  main  platform  and  eve, 


Carmel  by  the  Sea,  brochure 
produced  by  the  Carmel 
Realty  Co.,  c.  1905.  Lent  by 
Victoria  Dailey 


William  H.  Bull,  Po/o  at  De/  Bertha  Lum 

Monte,  poster,  1917.  Lent  by  Point  Lobos,  1921,  color 

Steve  Turner  Gallery,  Beverly  woodcut 

Hills 


S) 


DEL  MONTE 

Begins  March  3P' 
Ends  April  15  ^•^ 


vement  Is  to  break  the  grip  of  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  on  state  po 


>    California  School  of  Arts  and  Crafts  is  established  in  Berkeley,     >    California  Fruit  Growers  Exchange,  a  cooperative  of  citrus 


Williom  Wendt  Guy  Rose 

Malibu  Coast  [Paradise  Cove] .  Carmet  Dunes,  c.  1918-20, 

c.  1897,  oil  on  canvas  oil  on  canvas 


Yet  artists  were  not  the  only  people  to 
partake  of  this  region.  After  the  construction  of 
a  railroad  line  from  San  Francisco  in  the  late 
nineteenth  century,  the  Monterey  Peninsula 
gained  popularity  as  a  convenient  getaway  for 
wealthy  locals."  Whereas  its  central  creative 
figures,  writers  George  Sterling  and  Mary  Austin, 
romanticized  Carmel  as  a  Bohemian  enclave 
isolated  in  the  wilderness,  California  historian 
Kevin  Starr  has  characterized  it  as  "an  early 
example  of  the  leisure  community,"  imbued  with 
artistic  charm,  available  at  reasonable  prices." 
Emphasizing  the  artiness  of  this  area,  the  Carmel 
Realty  Company  included  a  painter's  palette  on 
the  back  cover  of  its  brochure  Carmel  by  the  Sea. 
Without  doubt,  Carmel  was  a  place  where  the 
interests  of  boosters  and  the  creative  community 
often  overlapped. 

As  for  the  numerous  artists  who  flocked  to 
Carmel  during  these  years,  they  unquestionably 
were  affected  by  the  commercial  development 
of  the  region.  As  Ilene  Fort  has  speculated  with 


regard  to  Guy  Rose,  who  made  a  series  of  paint- 
ings of  the  Carmel  coastline  in  the  1910s,  many 
artists  probably  chose  to  paint  vistas  that  they 
had  read  about  previously  in  guidebooks,  and 
their  works  were  influenced  by  those  written 
descriptions."  Rose  and  others  exhibited  their 
scenic,  unpopulated  seascapes  at  the  Hotel 
Del  Monte,  an  exclusive  resort  hotel  opened  in 
Monterey  in  1880  by  the  real  estate  arm  of  the 
Southern  Pacific  Railroad,  where  they  were 
accessible  to  wealthy  collectors  from  across  the 
country.^'  Thus,  informed  by  their  creators' 
touristic  experiences,  these  works  in  turn  became 
visual  souvenirs  of  California  for  affluent 
visitors  and  "advertisements"  of  the  state  for 
friends  at  home. 


concerns  better  known  by  its  label,  Sunkist,  markets  oranges 


ogans  sucti  as  "Oranges  for  Health— California  for  V/ealth."    >    Southwest  Museum,  the  first  museum  in  los  flngeles,  is  founded  by 


In  addition  to  its  purportedly  unspoiled 
natural  beauty,  a  salient  aspect  of  the  state's 
image  as  the  Garden  of  America  was  its  promi- 
nence in  horticulture,  especially  citrus  and 
grapes.  Indeed,  California,  which  between  1880 
and  1920  became  an  industrialized  agricultural 
empire,"  was  promoted  by  agribusiness  and 
other  booster  industries  as  a  veritable  cornu- 
copia, where  everything  from  indigenous  fruits 
and  flowers  to  imported  palms  flourished  in 
gargantuan  proportions.  Even  international 
tourists  sent  this  image  of  bounty  home,  as  indi- 
cated by  a  postcard  titled  A  Carload  of  Mammoth 
Strawberries,  which  bears  a  message  in  Japanese 
on  the  back.  This  conception  of  profuse  natural 
abundance  had  a  profound  impact  on  the  com- 
mercial arts  in  California.  For  example,  it  infused 
visual  images  that  adorned  orange  crates,  which 
played  an  enormous  role  in  shaping  popular 
conceptions  of  the  state.  It  also  affected  the  fine 
arts,  where  it  fueled  the  market  for  certain  types 
of  work.  Artist  Granville  Redmond  complained 
that  although  he  preferred  other  subjects  to 
California's  state  flower,  poppies  were  what  peo- 
ple wanted  to  buy.  He  could  scarcely  paint  them 
quickly  enough  to  satisfy  the  demand."  The 
flower  paintings  of  Paul  de  Longpre  were  also 
tremendously  popular.  He  was  lauded  as  "Le  Roi 
des  Fleurs"  (The  King  of  the  Flowers),  and  the 


:^>WS 


Cher  Lummis  and  members  of  the  Southwest  Society,  a  branch  of  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  America.     >     19  8  8     >    "Gentleman's  Agreement"  between  Japan  and  the  United  States  is  signed,  Japanese 


h  Carload  of  Mammoth 
Strawberries,  postcard,  191 
Lent  by  the  McClelland 
Collection 


Crate  label  for  Rose  brand 
oranges,  Redlands  Orange 
Growers'  Association,  c.  1910. 
Lent  by  the  McClelland 


From  Bischoff 

California  Poppies  Vase, 
porcelain 


Granville  Redmond 

California  Poppy  Field, 
oil  on  canvas 


^-    \A 


^''^^:^^^Mkt:T^^:i^i^'M'Ki^^,t-t  Vv^tV 


immigration  is  limited  to  the  wealthy,  but  not  closed  off  completely  due  to  fears  of  Japanese  retaliation.     >    Los  flngeles  City  Council's  Housing  Commission  reports  on  the  living  conditions  of  Mexican  railroad  I 


km. 


.-^T 


found  filth  and  squalor  on  every  hand,' 


19  0  9     >    State  legislature  authorizes  the  sale  of  bonds  to  begin  California's  first  integrated  network  of  paved  roads.    >    On  June  13  the  Los  fingeles  Times 


Postcard  showing  the  garden 
at  Paul  de  Longpre's  home  in 
Hollywood,  1905.  Lent  by 
Victoria  Dailey 


Paul  de  Longpre 

Roses  La  France  and  Jack 
Noses  with  Clematis  on  a 
Lattice  Work,  No.  56 
watercoior  on  paper 


900, 


Anne  M.  Bremer 

An  Old  Fashioned  Garden, 
n.d.,  oil  on  canvas 


Mathews  Furniture  Shop 

Rectangular  Box  with  Lid, 
1929,  painted  wood 


Ira  Brown  Cross,  untitled 
photograph  of  agricultural 
workers,  1908.  Courtesy  of 
the  Bancroft  Library, 
University  of  California, 
Berkeley 


f 

Randal  W.  Borough,  poster 
for  the  Portola  Festival, 
San  Francisco,  1909.  Lent 
by  Steve  Turner  Gallery, 
Beverly  Hills 


MIVj 


Sm  FRANCIS  CO 


,1 -'•^l-- 

'''B.iarjul-^.. 


OCTOBBF^.  IQ-SS 


spectacular  garden  at  his  Hollywood  home  was 
a  popular  tourist  attraction  during  this  period. 
Collectors  also  loved  the  delicately  painted  floral 
porcelains  of  Franz  Bischoff/'  Already  accom- 
plished in  this  medium  before  moving  west  from 
Detroit,  Bischoff  chose  to  settle  and  cultivate  his 
private  gardens  in  Pasadena,  a  city  made  famous 
as  a  horticultural  mecca  by  the  Tournament  of 
Roses  parade  held  there  since  1890. 

In  popular  imagery,  views  of  neatly 
planted  orange  groves  adjacent  to  cozy  bunga- 
lows— California's  answer  to  the  American 
yearning  for  private,  healthful,  and  affordable 
living — fostered  a  distinctly  domestic  conception 
of  the  state.  This  vision  sharply  contrasted  with 
the  nineteenth-century  image  of  an  uncivilized 
frontier  associated  with  the  Gold  Rush.  Yet  idyllic 
images  of  California's  domesticated  landscape 
rarely  so  much  as  hinted  at  the  human  effort 
expended — largely  by  Mexican,  Japanese,  Italian, 
and  other  immigrant  laborers — to  cultivate  the 
natural  terrain.  Subjects  of  this  sort  only 
appeared  in  rare  documentary  images  of  the 
period,  such  as  a  1908  photograph  by  economics 
professor  Ira  Brown  Cross.  Nor  did  booster 
images  ever  allude  to  the  instances  of  unrest 
among  migratory  farmworkers — for  example, 
the  violent  Wheatland  hop-pickers  strike  of  1913, 
which  was  organized  by  the  radical  labor  organi- 
zation the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World 
(iww)."  Rather,  the  standard  booster  conception 
of  the  cultivated  landscape,  serving  the  interests 
of  agribusiness  and  largely  promoted  by  the 
arts,  was  that  of  a  serene,  verdant  place  that 
miraculously  eschewed  the  need  for  human  toil, 
effectively  obscuring  the  harsh  realities  of  the 
agricultural  labor  system  in  California. 


publishes  Its  first  story  about  filmmaking  in  the  city.     >    Women  Painters  of  California  is  founded.     >     1910     >    Mexican  Revolution  sparks 


Mexican  immigration  to  the  United  States,  which  g 


In  addition  to  producing  fantasy  images 
of  the  physical  environment,  California's  booster 
industries  and  individuals  presented  the  cultural 
landscape  to  Anglo  audiences  through  a  variety 
of  mythologizing  and  exoticizing  lenses.  Often 
references  to  disparate  cultures  were  mixed  and 
overlaid,  fostering  a  sort  of  pan-exoticism  in 
California,  whereby  Mexico  was  crossed  with  the 
Middle  East  or  Asia  with  classical  Greece.  At  times, 
however,  attention  w'as  focused  on  specific  ethnic 
or  cultural  groups — either  their  contemporaneous 
manifestation  or  their  historical  past.  In  most 
cases,  the  groups  in  question  were  inaccurately 
envisioned  by  Anglo  culture  as  indelibly  ancient 
peoples,  whose  age-old  customs  needed  to  be 
documented  before  they  vanished.  While  such 
identities  were  ascribed  in  the  guise  of  celebrating 
or  aiding  these  peoples,  in  fact  they  enabled  an 
Anglo  assertion  of  cuhural  dominance  and  superi- 
ority over  the  state's  nonwhite  populations. 

Another  such  means  of  asserting  cultural 
superiority,  especially  popular  within  literary 
and  artistic  circles  and  among  wealthy  Bay  Area 
collectors,  entailed  ignoring  California's  non- 
white  populations  altogether  and  mythologizing 
the  state  as  a  Mediterranean  haven  along  the 
lines  of  ancient  Athens  or  Rome.  Influenced  by 
the  American  Renaissance  style's  Italianizing 
impulse,  which  permeated  cultural  production 
nationwide,"  artists  visually  echoed  the  senti- 
ments of  popular  writers.  Charles  Dudley 
Warner,  author  of  Our  Italy  (1891),  for  example, 
asserted  that  the  Mediterranean  sensibility  was 
perfectly  matched  with  California's  indigenous 
climate  and  terrain.  Venerated  Bay  Area  artist 
and  teacher  Arthur  Mathews  frequently  invoked 
classical  Mediterranean  culture  in  the  publication 
he  edited,  Philopolis.  He  asserted  that  contem- 
porary (Anglo)  Californians  should  adopt  the 
more  balanced  lifestyle  of  the  ancient  Greeks 
and  Romans. 


rcent  between  1910  and  1930,  The  development  of  the  Mexican  railroad  facilitates  the  trasportation  of  political  and  economic  refugees  to  the  United  States 


Juring  a  violent  ironworkers'  strike,  tii' 


Arthur  Frank  Mathews 

Mathews  Furniture  Shop 

Gottardo  Piaizoni 

Arthur  Bowen  Davies 

Anne  W.  Brigman 

California,  1905,  oil  on 

Desk,  c.  1910-15,  carved  ond 

Untitled  Triptych,  n,d,,  oil  on 

Pacific  Parnassus,  Mount 

/nf/nrtude,  C.19G5,  g 

canvas 

painted  maple  [?],  oak, 
tooled  leather,  and  replaced 
hardware 

canvas 

Tamalpais,  c.  1905,  oil  on 
canvas 

silver  print 

This  enthusiasm  for  the  classical  past 
infused  the  work  of  Mathews  and  his  wife, 
furniture  designer  Lucia  Mathews.  Both  were 
major  figures  in  the  Arts  and  Crafts  movement, 
an  artistic  reaction  against  industrialization 
that  called  for  a  return  to  handcraftsmanship  and 
a  life  led  in  harmony  with  nature.  Although  it 
began  in  England,  the  movement  found  its  ideal 
home  in  California.  The  handsome,  highly  deco- 
rative objects  produced  by  the  couple's  furniture 


shop  were  commonly  adorned  with  colorful 
arcadian  scenes  of  classicized  figures  com- 
muning with  nature.  In  addition  to  other  Arts 
and  Crafts  artists.  Bay  Area  figures  who  shared 
the  Mathewses'  penchant  for  the  ancients 
included  painters  Gottardo  Piazzoni  and  Xavier 
Martinez.  Piazzoni,  for  example,  used  classical 
columns  to  divide  the  three  sections  of  his 
moody  Untitled  Triptych. 


Los  Rngeles  Times  building  is  blown  up  on  October  1,  killing  20  and  injuring  17.     >    San  Diego  Academy  of  Art  is  founded  by  painter  Maurice  Braun.     >    The  socialist  Industrial  V/orkers  of  the  V/orld  tlWW)  m 


Many  of  the  writers  and  artists  who 
invoked  these  classical  associations,  including 
Martinez  and  Piazzoni,  were  members  of  the 
Bohemian  Club  of  San  Francisco.  Founded  in 
1872,  this  exclusive  confederation  of  prominent 
businessmen,  journalists,  writers,  and  artists — 
a  major  cultural  force  in  the  region  at  this  time — 
regularly  congregated  outdoors.  One  writer 
mused  in  the  Bohemian  Club  publication  The 
Lark  that  immersing  himself  in  the  woods  of 
Northern  California  invariably  transported  him 
to  an  ancient  Arcadia:  "We  had  a  camp  there 
which  was  an  Arden  in  an  Arcady.  We  were  all 
young,  happy,  and  sane  beneath  those  boughs, 
and  there  came  to  us  there  a  revelation  of  simple 
living,  and  clean-minded  pastimes.""  These 
associations  served  to  strengthen  a  white,  anti- 
urban  conception  of  California.  Moreover,  they 
attempted  to  legitimize  the  region's  cultural 
heritage  by  linking  California  to  the  ancient 
nucleus  of  Western  civilization. 

In  Southern  California,  particularly  with 
the  impact  of  early  Hollywood  on  Pictorialist 
photographers  (including  award-winning  cine- 
matographer  Karl  Struss  and  Arthur  Kales,  who 
often  used  actresses  and  dancers  as  models),  the 
Mediterranean  metaphor  took  on  a  decidedly 
theatrical  bent.  This  taste  for  theater  also  infused 
real  estate  developer  Abbot  Kinney's  grand 
conceptualization  of  Venice,  Cahfornia  (begun 
in  1892;  finished  in  1904),  as  a  replica  of  its 
European  namesake,  complete  with  canals, 
gondolas,  and  a  doge's  palace. 

In  Hollywood,  and  further  south  in  the 
San  Diego  area,  the  classicizing  impulse  also 
manifested  itself  in  the  spiritual  enclaves  of 
Krotona,  founded  by  Albert  P.  Warrington,  and 
Katherine  Tingley's  Lomaland.  These  communi- 
ties drew  the  spiritually  hungry  and  the  curious 
from  all  over  the  world  to  California.  And 
Lomaland,  the  international  headquarters  for 


,000  migratory  farm  laborers  to  a  dozen  California  locals,     >    Los  Angeles's  Old  Ctiinatown  is  in  its  heyday.  The  area  encompasses  15  streets  and  contains  a  Chinese  opera  theater,  three  temples,  and  a 


Karl  Struss 

Monterey  Coast,  1910-15, 
gelatin-silver  print 


Arthur  Kales 

The  Sun  Dance,  c.1920 
gelatin-silver  print 


Edouard  A.  Vysekal 

Springtime,  1913,  oil 
paper,  mounted 


Rex  Siinkard 

Infinite,  c,  1915-16,  oil  on 
canvas 


i 


newspaper.  Its  restaurants,  gift  shops,  and  "exotic"  qualities  make  it  a  popular 


jst  attraction.     >    fingel  Island,  in  San  Francisco  Bay,  opens 


ing  center  for  Chinese  immigrants,  v/hi 


Souvenir  album  of  Lomolond, 

Diotima,  Myrto,  and 

Reginald  Machell 

^H 

Point  Loma,  1913.  Lent  by 

Aspasia,  frontispiece  from 

Kathertne  Tingley's  Chair, 

w 

the  Theoscphicat  Society 

The  Theosophical  Path 

The  Theosophical  Society, 

(Pasadena) 

(November  1911).  Lent  by 

Point  Loma,  c.  1905-10, 

^ 

the  Theosophical  Society 

carved  and  painted  wood 

(Pasadena) 

86 

I |fI5£RnA5IOnAL5B£OSOPfolC/\L  RCACC  Q)fl<iR€S5 1 


4 1 M  M 


the  Universal  Brotherhood  and  Theosophical 
Society,  attracted  a  considerable  number  of 
artists.  In  their  designs  for  Theosophical  publica- 
tions and  in  individual  works  of  art,  many  of 
these  figures  fostered  Lomaland's  aesthetic,  which 
incorporated  elements  of  classical,  medieval,  and 
Near  Eastern  sources,  among  others.  Reginald 
Machell,  the  principal  designer  of  Lomaland's 
ceremonial  rooms,  carved  an  elaborately  filigreed 
screen  and  the  principal  ceremonial  chair  used 
by  Tingley.  Machell's  screen  is  pictured  in  a 
photograph  of  three  Theosophical  devotees — 
described  only  as  "Diotima,  Myrto,  and 
Aspasia" — at  Lomaland's  Greek  Theater.  Such 
figures  and  the  enclaves  where  they  congregated 
supported  a  premodern  vision  of  California  as 
safely  (if  eccentrically)  locked  in  a  spiritually 
nourishing,  ancient  past. 

Classical  antiquity  was  but  one  cultural 
lens  through  which  California  was  viewed. 
Perhaps  the  most  pervasive  cultural  mythology 
of  the  period,  which  continues  to  have  an  impact 
on  conceptions  of  California  today,  involved  the 
romanticization  of  the  state's  Spanish  mission 
history.  The  impetus  for  this  mythology  was  the 
publication  of  Helen  Hunt  Jackson's  immensely 
popular  Ramona  (1884),  a  sentimental  tale  of 


etimes  detained  for  months  while  being  interrogated  and  checked  for  disease,     >     1911     >    California  becomes  the  sixth  state  to  grant  woman  suffrage      >    United  States  Supreme  Court  orders  the 


Frederick  J.  Schwonkovsky 

Woman  at  the  Piano, 
c.  1925,  oil  on  canvas 


Robert  Wilson  Hyde 

A  House  Book,  1906,  suede 
and  brass  cover,  suede 
flyleaves,  parchment,  wove 
rag  paper,  and  ink 


CALIFORNIA   LIVING 


Arts  and  Crafts 

At  the  turn  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
travelers  to  California  sought  a  para- 
dise that  promised  renewal,  a  healthy 
lifestyle,  and  a  connection  to  nature. 
This  spirit  informed  the  Arts  and 
Crafts  movement,  which  flourished 
in  California  from  the  1880s  to  the 
1920s.  This  social  reform  movement 
was  originally  driven  by  the  philoso- 
phies of  Englishmen  John  Ruskin 
and  William  Morris,  whose  tenets  of 
simplicity  and  usefulness  had  direct 
application  to  architecture  and 
decorative  arts.  Ruskin  and  Morris 
protested  the  quality  of  the  products 
of  the  Industrial  Revolution,  and 
they  rejected  mechanization  in  favor 
of  handcrafting,  rustic  simplicity, 
indigenous  materials,  and  motifs 
inspired  by  nature.  Arts  and  Crafts 
reformers  advocated  a  harmonious 
integration  of  elements  to  create 
a  comfortable  and  healthy  environ- 
ment. They  believed  that  homes 
designed  accordingto  such  principles 


Company  of  California  broken  up  umjei  antitrust  laws.     >    The  first  municipal  arts  commission  in  the  United  States  is  formed  in  Los  flngeles.  It  Is  devoted  to  urban  aesthetics,  such  as  stree 


background  a 

Greene  and  Greene  California  Faience 

Robert  R.  Blacker  House,  Vase,  c.  1920,  earthenware 

Pasadena,  South  Elevation, 
Drawing's,  1907,  black  ink 
on  linen 


promoted  physical  and  spiritual 
well-being,  both  assuring  a  healthful 
society. 

The  classic  Arts  and  Crafts  home 
was  the  low-profile,  horizontal 
wooden  bungalow.  Among  the  most 
celebrated  designers  in  this  style 
were  the  architects  Bernard  Maybeck 
and  Charles  Keeler  of  Northern 
California  and  the  brothers  Charles 
Sumner  and  Henry  Mather  Greene, 
founders  of  the  Pasadena  architec- 
tural firm  Greene  and  Greene  in 
Southern  California.  Bungalows  were 
originally  intended  to  be  economical 
and  of  simple  design.  Maybeck  and 
Keeler  adhered  to  these  paradigms, 
whereas  Greene  and  Greene's  four 
California  bungalow  commissions 
were  lavish,  monumental  structures 
with  elegant  custom  furnishings  and 
were  therefore  christened  "ultimate 
bungalows." 

The  Arts  and  Crafts  period  envi- 
ronment in  the  Made  in  California 
exhibition  featured  original  Greene 


and  Greene  furniture  from  the  Robert 
R.  Blacker  and  William  R.  Thorsen 
house  commissions,  art  pottery, 
metal  accessories,  a  hand-carved 
fireplace  screen,  and  California 
Indian  baskets.  The  mahogany  furni- 
ture with  ebony  joinery  is  inlaid  with 
metal  and  shell  in  a  naturalistic 
Japanese  motif  that  fuses  Asian  and 
Western  design  and  honors  nature  as 
the  wellspring  of  inspiration. 

In  the  ideal  Arts  and  Crafts 
home,  light  fixtures  were  intended  to 
softly  illuminate  the  interior,  windows 
framed  outdoor  vistas,  the  fireplace 
served  as  a  welcoming  beacon,  and 
pottery  and  baskets  celebrated 
handcrafting:  This  was  the  ambience 
of  warmth,  comfort,  harmony,  and 
inspired  aesthetic  living  that  defined 
the  Arts  and  Crafts  lifestyle. 

JO    LAURIA 


i  think  C.  Sumner  Greene's  work  beautiful . . .  Like  [Frank]  Lloyd  Wright  the  spell  of  Japan  is  on  him,  he  feels  the  beauty 
and  makes  magic  out  of  the  horizontal  line,     c   r   ashbee,  1909 


ding  design,  and  purchasing  public  art.     >     1912     >    Mack  Sennett  moves  his  film  studio  from  New  York  to  Los  flngeies  and  begins  making  Keystone  Cops  movies.     >    T/ie  W/ss/on  Way,  by  John  McGroarty, 


staged  near  the  San  Gabriel  mission.  During  a  17-year  run. 


;n  by  nnore  than  2,5  mill 


>    First  gas  station  in  Southern  California  opens 


19  13     >    Cecil  B.  DeMille  begins  filming  The  $qi. 


Helen  MacGregor 

Reclining  Woman  with  Guitar, 
c.  1921,  gelotm-silver  print 


Souvenir  book  for  John  Steven 
McGroarty's  The  Mission  Play, 
1928.  Lentbyjim  Heimann 


Cover  illustration  for  a 
brochure  published  by  the 
Los  Angeles  Chamber  of 
Commerce  promoting 
Los  Angeles  County,  1930s. 
Lent  byjim  Heimann 


Alvin  Langdon  Coburn 

Giant  Palm  Trees,  Califo 
Mission,  1911,  platinum 


ill-fated  love  between  an  Indian  man  and  Ramona, 
a  so-called  half-breed.  Set  in  enchanting  Old 
California,  Jackson's  novel  precipitated  a  veritable 
tourist  craze,  inspiring  pilgrimages  to  the  sites 
where  Ramona's  tragic  drama  unfolded.  By  means 
of  the  Mission  Myth,  the  region's  boosters  recast 
California's  mission  history  in  glorifying  terms 
and  whitewashed  the  Spaniards'  gross  mistreatment 
and  colonization  of  Native  Americans,  thereby 
supplying  tourists  and  displaced  newcomers  with 
a  comforting,  shared  vision  of  a  golden  regional 
past.  As  Carey  Mc Williams  has  dryly  characterized 
it,  the  Mission  Myth  reenvisioned  the  missions  as 
"havens  of  happiness  and  contentment"  for  the 
local  Indians  and  sentimentalized  Californios  (the 
descendants  of  the  Spanish  colonists)  of  the  sub- 
sequent rancho  era  as  "members  of  one  big  happy 
guitar-twanging  family,  [who]  danced  the  fan- 
dango and  lived  out  days  of  beautiful  indolence."^* 


I,  the  story  of  an  aristocrat  forced  to  leave  England  who  marries  a  Native  American.  This  silent  film  is  the  first  feature-length  movie  made  in  Hollywood.     >    Hiram  Johnson,  Progressive  governor  of  California,  signs 


Charles  Rollo  Peters 

Adobe  House  on  the  Lagoon, 
n.d.,  oil  on  canvas 


Manuel  Valencia 

Santa  Barbara  Mission  at 
Night,  n.d.,  oil  on  canvas 


California's  twenty-one  missions  symbol- 
ized a  romantic,  bygone  era.  In  addition  to 
spawning  the  antimodernist  Mission  Revival 
style  in  architecture — epitomized  by  Frank 
Miller's  famous  Mission  Inn  in  Riverside — 
the  missions  were  the  focus  of  concerted  preser- 
vationist efforts,  bespeaking  the  idealism  of  the 
Progressive  Era.  The  Landmarks  Club  was 
founded  to  this  preservationist  end  in  1894  by 
Charles  Fletcher  Lummis,  whose  enthusiasm  for 
Alta  California  inspired  him  to  dress  in  Old 
Spanish  attire  and  to  go  by  "Don  Carlos."  (The 
appellation  "Don"  associated  Lummis  with  the 
Spanish  landlords  of  Indian  land  and  labor 
grants.)  Advocates  such  as  Lummis  sought  not 
to  restore  the  missions  but  to  preserve  them  in  all 
of  their  picturesque,  crumbling  beauty."  Not 
surprisingly,  the  numerous  artists  who  depicted 
this  subject  matter  for  eager  audiences — among 
them  many  Pictorialist  photographers  and 
Tonalist  painters,  such  as  Charles  Rollo  Peters — 
tended  toward  moody,  often  nocturnal  scenes 
that  nostalgically  invoked  the  image  of  a  beauti- 
ful, waning  civilization. 

An  emblem  of  progressivism,  Jackson's 
Ramona  was  intended  to  foreground  the  plight 
of  contemporary  Indians.  It  did  give  rise  to  the 
Sequoya  League,  which  aided  300  displaced 
Native  Americans,  albeit  with  the  patronizing 
aim  "To  Make  Better  Indians.""  Yet  the  propo- 
nents of  the  Mission  Myth  conceived  of  Native 
Americans  in  primitivizing  terms,  as  an  abject, 
disappearing  race  rather  than  as  a  vital  contem- 
porary presence.  In  addition  to  eccentric 
ethnographer  and  collector  George  Wharton 
James,  others  who  promoted  a  conception  of 
California's  Indians  as  noble  yet  impotent 
vestiges  of  an  ancient  culture  included  photogra- 
phers Edward  Curtis  and  Adam  Clark  Vroman. 
Their  images,  populated  by  women  and  the 
elderly,  presented  Native  American  culture  as 


law  limiting  the  lease  and  prohibiting  the  purchase  of  agricultural  land  by  Japanese  aliens.     >    The  IWV/'s  campaign  to  organize  migratory  laborers  reaches  a  violent  culmination  in  the  V/heatland  riot  on  a  farm  I 


Channel  P.  Townsley 

Mission  San  Juan  Capistrano, 
1916,  oil  on  canvas 


W.  Edwin  Gledhill 

Santa  Barbara  Mission, 
c.  1920,  gelatin-silver  print 


posing  no  threat  to  contemporary  Anglo  society, 
in  contrast  to  pervasive  earlier  depictions  of 
Indians  as  a  savage  race  of  brutal  warriors.  They 
fueled  the  widespread  notion  that  California's 
Native  Americans  were  an  especially  pitiable 
subgroup  from  the  bottom  of  the  evolutionary 
chain.  As  an  1897  New  York  Herald  article 
reported,  "It  seems  to  have  been  the  consensus 
of  opinion  of  all  ethnologic  students  that 
California  gave  birth  to  nearly  the  lowest  type 
of  human  creatures  who  have  inhabited  the 
earth.  It  is  the  belief  of . . .  [a]  noted  ethnologist 
that  the  Pacific  coast  tribes,  all  in  all,  are  the 
most  primitive  and  least  physically  and  mentally 
developed  of  any  of  the  tribes  of  North 
America.""  Demeaning  images  such  as  The 
Belles  of  San  Luis  Key  Mission,  which  was  printed 
on  postcards  and  published  in  an  1894  issue 
of  Land  of  Sunshine  that  accompanied  a  nostalgic 
article  on  Alta  California,  reinforced  this 
perception." 

Unable  to  escape  being  labeled  as  Other 
by  the  dominant  culture,  the  living  members 
of  these  objectified  cultures  at  times  utilized  the 
stereotypes  to  their  own  ends.  For  example, 
California's  Native  Americans  used  the  percep- 
tion of  their  cuhure  as  pitiful  to  garner  support 
from  Anglos  in  protecting  their  lands  from 
encroachment  by  ranchers  and  others.  And 
though  in  part  fulfilling  Anglo  expectations  of 
what  constituted  Native  American  culture, 
California  Indians  responded  to  the  vogue  for 
woven  baskets  and  rugs  among  tourists  and 
local  collectors  by  fashioning  fiinctional  objects 
into  decorative  consumer  goods.  These  objects — 
for  example,  a  finely  woven  trinket  basket 
probably  made  expressly  for  sale  by  Elizabeth 
Hickox  of  the  Northern  California  Karok  tribe — 
were  more  elaborate  than  traditional  utilitarian 
objects,  such  as  a  gathering  basket  in  openwork 
style  eventually  acquired  by  George  Wharton 


ramento  Valley.    >    The  Owens  Valley  Aqueduct  is  completed,  making  possible  Los  Angeles's  spectacular  growth  in  the  twentieth  century.  Upon  its  opening,  engineer  William  Mulholland  says,  "There  it  is— take  it!"    > 


Edward  S.  Curtis 

/I  Desert  Cahuilla  Woman  fr( 
The  North  American  Indian, 
vol.  15  (1924),  pi.  522, 
photogravure 


Adam  Clark  Vroman 

San  Gabriel  Mission,  c.191 
gelatm-silver  print 


The  Belles  of  San  Luis  Rey 
Mission,  postcard,  1903,  Lent 
by  the  McClelland  Collection 


f 

Edward  S.  Curtis 

Mitat—I^ailaki  from 

The  Native  North  An 

Indian,  M0\.  14  (1924),  pi.  472, 

photogravure 


Los  fingeles  Museum  of  History,  Science,  and  flrl  holds  its  first  exhibition  in  its  new  building  in  Exposition  Park.     >    19  14     >    San  Francisco  acquires  control  of  the  Hetch  Hefchy  watershed  near  Yosernite,  viJ 


Elizabeth  Hickox 

Lidded  Trinket  Basket  with 
Design,  1900-1930,  twined 
maidenhair  fern  and  myrtle 
shoots 


Unknown  artist 

Basket,  c.  1900,juncus 


Unknown  artist  Jolin  William  Joseph  Winkler 

Cahuilla  Basket  with  Design  of  Oriental  Alley,  1920,  etching 

Abstract  Flowers,  1890-1920, 


Keep  California  White, 
pohticol  pamphlet,  c.  1920. 
Lent  by  the  Japanese 
American  National  Museum 


Arnold  Genthe 

The  Opium  Fiend,  1905, 
gelatin-silver  print 


HUBBUB 

HHmH 

'.  ';i'!i^'i?t*^jWjjMlffil 

^S.i^^m_^                   ^^^1 

.^'tjAfi^^^^^SH^ 

^^M^^^^i^^  .     ^miH 

%'^  ''iit*^<il^SlaKSSOWSftllf^ 

EBBmHl^K^S^i^llv 

- ''  '^  ^fa™fHwBffl 

HHEK^^^^ 

'i^-MHwili'mfflffi 

^mOm^w^i^^-v^^ 

w 

lames,  the  California  booster  and  enthusiast  of 
Native  American  cuhure. 

The  Mission  Myth  was  also  fostered  by 
Californios  such  as  Manuel  Valencia,  a  descendant 
of  one  of  the  first  Spanish  families  in  California, 
who  painted  romantic,  nocturnal  scenes  of 
missions.  The  same  is  true  of  Don  Antonio  de 
Coronel,  mayor  of  Los  Angeles  in  the  1850s,  who 
effectively  marketed  himself  as  an  old-world 
Spaniard,  serving  as  an  advisor  to  Helen  Hunt 
Jackson  and  others."  As  these  men  undoubtedly 
recognized,  the  romanticized  image  of  the  dons 
of  Alta  California  was  far  preferable  to  the 
derogatory  view  of  contemporary  Mexicans  that 
prevailed  within  the  dominant  culture.  By  and 
large,  proponents  of  the  mission  mythology 
remained  unsympathetic  to  descendants  of  the 
cultures  they  sentimentalized,  preferring  instead 
to  hold  Spanish  fiestas,  study  traditional  Native 
American  basket-weaving  techniques,  and 
wistfully  laud  the  waning  cultures  of  yore. 


ately  supplies  240,000,000  gallons  of  water  daily     >    Inauguration  of  the  Panama  Canal  opens  California's  ports  and  markets  to  the  East  Coast  and  Europe 


1915     >    San  Diego  hosts  the  Panama-California 


One  contemporary  ethnic  group — those  of 
Chinese  descent  who  inhabited  the  Chinatowns 
of  San  Francisco,  Los  Angeles,  San  Diego,  and 
smaller  California  locales — was  a  visible  subject 
of  fascination  and  contention  within  the  domi- 
nant culture.  On  the  one  hand,  Chinatowns 
were  popularized  as  exotic  destinations  for  Anglo 
tourists  and  locals  and  were  a  great  source  of 
intrigue  for  aesthetes  in  the  Bay  Area,  including 
members  of  the  Bohemian  Club.  On  the  other, 
Chinese  immigrants  were  attacked  by  a  number 
of  forces — among  them,  the  Asiatic  Exclusion 
League,  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  and 
even  California  senator  (and  former  San 
Francisco  mayor)  lames  Phelan — as  vice-  and 
disease-ridden  detriments  to  society  who  threat- 
ened the  American  labor  system  by  depressing 
wages."  These  detractors  sought  to  uphold  the 
Chinese  Exclusionary  Acts,  which  had  barred 
fiarther  Chinese  immigration  to  the  United  States 
as  of  1882,  and  a  host  of  subsequent  anti-Asian 
laws.  That  Phelan,  one  of  the  most  vehement 
proponents  of  these  laws  and  author  of  the 
publication  Keep  California  White,  was  a  presi- 
dent of  the  Bohemian  Club  demonstrates  that 
sometimes  these  attacks  came  from  the  same 
camps  in  which  Asian  culture  was  celebrated  on 
an  aesthetic  level.  Notable  among  the  voices  that 
rose  to  counter  these  anti-Asian  sentiments  was 
that  of  Chinese  consul  Ho  Yow.  In  a  1901  article 
in  Overland  Monthly,  the  consul  characterized 
his  fellow  countrymen  in  terms  intended  to 
appease — as  "a  sober,  temperate,  and  industrious 
class . . .  intelligent  and  easy  to  control."  He  prom- 
ised that  "by  employing  Chinese  labor  you  get 
your  money's  worth  of  faithful,  steady  toil."" 

Except  for  portraits  of  residents  by  local 
Chinese  photographers,  virtually  all  of  the 
extant  visual  images  of  California's  Chinatowns 
from  before  1920  were  produced  by  and  for 
whites.  Those  created  by  artists,  including 


Exposition  in  Balboa  Parl<,    >    San  Francisco  hosts  the  Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition.    >    The  state  legislature  passes  the  Home  Teacher  Act,  intended  to  "Americanize"  Mexican  immigrants  and  Mexican  flmer 


1916     >    Oakland  flrt  Association  is  founded.     >    California  School  of  fine  Arts  is  founded  in  San  Francisco.     >    fl  bomb  blast  during  a  parade  In  San  Francisco,  while  a  longshoremen's  strike  is  on,  kills  10  and 


Henry  Nappenbach  Hermon  Oliver  Albrecht 

Chinese  New  Year  Celebration,  Three  if^omen  in  White, 

San  Francisco,  1904,  oil  on  c.  1910,  gelotm-silver  pri 
canvas 


Helen  Hyde 

Imps  of  Chinatown,  1910 
etching  with  hand  color 


Robert  Hen 

Tarn  Can,  1' 


Arthur  Burnside  Dodge 

Taken  by  Surprise,  n.d,, 
wotercolor  on  paper 


German  emigre  Arnold  Genthe's  photographs, 
strongly  resemble  the  images  that  appeared  on 
postcards  and  other  mass-market  tourist  sou- 
venirs. In  fact,  Genthe's  initial  intention  in  taking 
photographs  of  Chinatown  was  to  capture  what 
he  saw  as  the  exotic  flavor  of  the  place  for  his 
family  in  Germany." 

Many  of  the  Chinatown  images  created 
by  artists  were  meant  to  be  positive  in  that  they 
presented  their  subjects  as  visually  appealing, 
nonthreatening,  and  generally  sympathetic. 
Thus  it  is  not  surprising  that  photographs  by 
Genthe  were  used  to  illustrate  Consul  Ho  Yow's 
article  in  defense  of  his  immigrant  countrymen 
(although  Genthe  was  a  faithful  member  of  the 


Bohemian  Club,  which  had  elected  Asian  xeno- 
phobe  Phelan  as  its  president).  Yet  Genthe  and 
the  majority  of  white  artists  picturing  Chinatown 
objectified  and  exoticized  their  subjects,  revealing 
the  voyeuristic  sensibility  of  a  distanced,  invisible 
observer.  By  far  the  subjects  of  choice  were 
passive  women,  children,  and  elderly  people,  as 
well  as  opium  dens  and  late-night  celebrations, 
as  opposed  to  intact  nuclear  families  or  men 
engaged  in  daily  labor.  The  most  popular  images 
nostalgically  featured  San  Francisco's  Old 
Chinatown  before  the  enclave  had  been  devas- 
tated by  the  1906  earthquake  and  rebuilt  as  a 
more  tourist-oriented  space,  as  evidenced  by  the 
success  of  Genthe's  widely  circulated  Pictures  of 
Old  Chinatown  (1908).  These  images  depicted 
Chinese  subjects  exclusively  in  traditional  dress, 
thereby  effacing  any  evidence  of  cultural  assimi- 
lation or  modernization. 

Among  the  few  artists  to  diverge  somewhat 
from  this  characterization  was  Arthur  Burnside 
Dodge.  Although  Dodge  persisted  in  portraying 
Chinese  subjects  in  traditional  attire,  he  depicted 
less  conventional  views  of  Los  Angeles's 
Chinatown.  These  include  a  group  of  men  read- 
ing want  ads  and  an  encounter  between  tourists 
and  local  residents  that  acknowledges  the  pres- 
ence of  whites  as  visual  and  financial  consumers 
of  Chinatown.  In  general,  however,  California's 
artists  accorded  with  its  tourist  industries  in 
promoting  notions  of  the  Chinese  as  an  effete 
and  enigmatic  people  and  of  the  state's 
Chinatowns  as  authentic,  hermetically  sealed, 
and  expressly  premodern  spaces  on  the  verge  of 
vanishing.  Ironically,  the  romantic  vision  of 
Chinese  culture  as  being  on  the  brink  of  extinc- 
tion proved  sadly  accurate:  anti-immigration 
laws  were  in  fact  successfully  shrinking  the  state's 
Chinese  population. 


serlsusiy  wounds  40  others. 


J  9  1  7     >    U.S.  entry  into  V.'orld  War  i  boosts  California's  economy,  especially  in  the  areas  of  food  processing  and  cotton  production  for  soldiers'  uniforms 


91  8 


Official  program,  Panama 
Pacific  International 
Exposition,  San  Francisco 
1915.  LentbytheCaliforn 
Historical  Society,  North 
Baker  Research  Library, 
Ephemera  Collection 


Postcard  from  the  Panama- 
Pacific  International 
Exposition,  San  Francisco, 
featuring  the  Tower  of  Jewels 
and  James  Eorle  Eraser's 
statue  The  End  of  the  Trail, 
1915.  Lent  by  the  McClelland 
Collection 


Souvenir  stamps,  Panama- 
Pacific  International 
Exposition,  San  Francisco, 
1915.  LentbytheCalifornit 
Historical  Society,  North 
Baker  Research  Library, 
Ephemera  Collection 


SATURUAY,  FEBRtJaaY  27,  AMP  SUNDAY,  FEBRUaBY  28.  8915 


■Mf'<^^ 


All  of  the  prevailing  mythologies  of 
California,  involving  both  the  regional  culture 
and  the  natural  environment,  were  promoted 
forcefully  at  the  expositions  of  art  and  culture 
that  featured  or  were  hosted  by  California  during 
these  years.  Among  the  most  notable  examples 
are  the  Chicago  World's  Columbian  Exposition 
of  1893,  the  first  international  fair  to  have  a  sepa- 
rate building  devoted  solely  to  California,  and 
the  two  expositions  held  in  San  Francisco  and 
San  Diego  in  1915.  The  latter  were,  respectively, 
the  Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition 
(ppie),  which  celebrated  the  opening  of  the 
Panama  Canal;  and  the  Panama-California 
Exposition  (pce),  intended  to  rival  the  ppie 
once  San  Francisco  had  been  declared  the  site 
of  the  official  international  exposition.  Like 
other  expositions  held  in  the  United  States 
during  this  period,  these  three  were  federally 
subsidized  and  organized  by  prominent  members 
of  the  local  business  community  intent  on 
expanding  regional  commerce  and  celebrating 
America  as  an  imperial  power.  According  to 
Robert  Rydell,  expositions  of  this  period  fostered 
a  sense  of  unity  among  whites  of  disparate 
classes  by  promoting  a  Darwinian  conception 
of  racial  progress  that  culminated  in  the  ascen- 
sion of  the  Anglo  race."  The  message  communi- 
cated at  the  two  1915  California  expositions  was 
that  the  American  West  was  the  final  frontier 
where  this  history  of  racial  ascendancy  played 
itself  out:  first,  with  the  Spanish  subjugation 
of  the  Indians,  then  with  the  Anglo  conquest  of 
Alta  California.'" 

At  the  1893  Chicago  exposition,  many  of 
the  mythologies  of  California  that  would  become 
central  to  its  early-twentieth-century  image — 
notably,  its  physical  beauty,  its  fecundity,  and  its 
romantic  mission  past — were  encapsulated  and 
intermingled  in  the  fair's  displays  and  in  promo- 
tional materials  devoted  to  the  state.  In  honor  of 


founded  in  Los  fingele 


19  19     >    Construction  begins  on  the  Hollywood  Bowl,  a  venture  financed  almost  entirely  by  the  public.     >    California  passes  the  Criminal  Syndicalism  fict,  an  antilabor 


!D/0F%UN5HINE 


Harry  Ellington  Brook's 
Southern  California:  The  Land 
of  Sunshine,  booklet  spon- 
sored by  the  Los  Angeles 
Chamber  of  Commerce  for  the 
Chicago  World's  Columbian 
Exposition,  1893 


Official  guidebook,  Panama- 
California  Exposition, 
San  Diego,  1915.  Lent  by  the 
Sierra  Madre  Public  Library 


f 

Brochure  promoting  the 
Panama-California  Exposition 
produced  by  the  U.  S.  Grant 
Hotel,  San  Diego,  1915.  Lent 
by  Victoria  Daiiey 


this  sense  of  regional  identity  was  communicated 
at  the  San  Francisco  exposition  through  the  use 
of  Mission  Style  architecture  in  the  California 
Building  (most  of  the  fair's  other  buildings  were 
rendered  in  a  Beaux- Arts  style),  it  was  stressed 
even  more  forcefully  at  the  San  Diego  pce. 
There,  the  entire  complex  was  designed  by  archi- 
tect Bertram  Goodhue  in  an  ornate  Spanish 
Colonial-Baroque  style  that  resuscitated  the 
Spanish  imperial  past  in  unequivocally  glowing 
terms.  As  one  reporter  marveled,  "It  is  as 
though  one  stood  on  a  magic  carpet,  wished 
himself  on  the  shores  of  Spain  three  centuries 
ago  and  found  the  wish  fulfilled."  Embracing 
the  idealized  conception  of  Spanish  culture  that 
was  being  served  up  to  visitors,  another  enrap- 
tured writer  dubbed  the  exposition  grounds 
"a  sweet  and  restful  land  where  'castles  in  Spain' 
seem  realities;  a  land  in  which  you  loaf  and 
invite  your  soul.""" 


the  exposition,  the  Los  Angeles  Chamber 
of  Commerce  issued  the  publication  Southern 
California:  The  Land  of  Sunshine^  Published  in 
conjunction  with  the  opening  of  the  California 
Building,  it  features  on  its  cover  a  classicized  alle- 
gorical figure  of  California.  The  burgeoning 
orange  bough  clasped  near  her  womb  conveys 
the  fertility  of  the  region.  Behind  her  lies  a  thriv- 
ing cultivated  landscape  with  palm  trees  and, 
beyond  that,  a  classic  picturesque  mission.  This 
idyllic  conception,  fervently  marketed  to  the  mil- 
lions of  visitors  who  attended  the  fair,  reappeared 
on  a  grander  scale  at  the  two  major  California 
expositions  of  1915. 

Heavily  supported  by  the  railroads  and 
other  booster  industries,  the  San  Francisco  and 
San  Diego  expositions  perpetuated  visions  of 
California  as  a  scenic,  bountiful  paradise  with  a 
distinct  regional  history  and  ethnic  flavor.  While 


THE  OFFICIAL 

GUIDE  BOOR 

OF  THE 

PANAMA  CALIFORNIA  EXPOSITION 
SAN  DIEGO  1915 


1  Zl  v^^-u^^^:^- 


^^i 


t\ 


and  dnfi-Comniunist  measure  that  allows  for  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  persons  accused  of  threatening  the  government,     >    Henry  E.  Huntington  Library  and  Art  Gallery  is  founded  in  San  Marino      > 


Postcard  showing  the  Chinese 
Pavilion,  Panama-Pacific 
International  Exposition, 
San  Francisco,  1915.  Lent  by 
UCLA  Library,  Department  of 
Special  Collections 


Postcard  showing  a  Navaho 
blanket  weaver  in  the  Painted 
Desert  exhibit,  Panama- 
California  Exposition, 
San  Diego,  1915.  Lent  by  the 
San  Diego  Historical  Society 
Research  Archives 


While  ethnicity  was  addressed  in  anthropo- 
logical exhibits  on  the  main  exposition  grounds 
at  both  of  the  1915  fairs,  California's  nonwhite 
ethnic  groups  were  largely  ghettoized  in  adjacent 
entertainment-oriented  midways,  intended  as 
counterbalances  to  the  "serious"  exhibitions  of  art, 
anthropology,  and  technology.  For  example,  both 
the  p pie's  Joy  Zone  and  the  pce's  Isthmus,  as 
these  midways  were  respectively  called,  featured  a 
little  Chinatown,  where  Chinese  culture  was  pre- 
sented as  exotic,  illicit,  and  sinister.  In  the  San 
Diego  version,  a  journalist  reported  on  "an  under- 
ground opium  den  where  effigies  in  wax  depicted 
the  horrors  of  addiction.""'  The  similarly  deni- 
grating Underground  Chinatown  at  the  p  p  i  e  was 
closed  after  protest  by  San  Francisco's  Chinese 
business  community — the  closure  marked  an 
effort  by  white  local  business  to  foster  economic 
relations  with  China — only  to  be  replaced  by  a 
virtually  identical  concession  called  Underground 
Slumming."^  Another  ppie  Joy  Zone  attraction 
was  a  fantasy  reconstruction  of  a  Mexican  village. 
While  outfitted  for  modern  commerce  with  a 
restaurant  and  theater,  it  was  staffed  by  "primi- 
tive" Mexicans  working  at  what  was  described  as 
"characteristic  handicrafts.""  The  term  was  clearly 
meant  to  distinguish  the  objects  they  were  pro- 
ducing from  contemporary  "fine"  art. 


One  of  the  most  popular  concessions  at 
the  PCE  was  the  Painted  Desert.  A  ten-acre 
exhibit,  it  featured  pueblos  re-created  on  the  site 
and  a  group  of  present-day  Native  Americans 
actually  engaging  in  the  traditional  practices  of 
basket,  pottery,  and  rug  making  for  the  viewing 
and  buying  pleasure  of  exposition-goers." 
Tellingly,  it  was  placed  opposite  a  display  celebrat- 
ing California's  modern  technological  advances  in 
agriculture,  reinforcing  the  contrast  between  the 
"primitive"  past  and  the  vital  present."^  Although 
dubbed  a  "living  exhibit,"  the  Painted  Desert 
proved  quite  the  opposite,  sounding  a  death  knell 
on  Native  American  culture  by  presenting  Indians 
as  ancient  artifacts.  It  is  hardly  surprising  that 
the  Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa  Fe  Railroad 
sponsored  this  display,  for  this  decision  made 
good  business  sense.  Such  presentations  of  the 
region's  non-Anglo  cultures  as  disappearing  were 
tremendously  appealing  and  comforting  to  white 
visitors,  effectively  drawing  great  numbers  of 
them  to  the  expositions  and,  more  generally,  to 
California. 

For  this  brief  period  early  in  the  century, 
booster  images  of  California  as  a  premodern, 
Edenic  paradise  dominated  cultural  production 
in  the  state.  Yet  California  was  far  from  the 
homogeneous  haven  for  Anglo  culture  that  it  was 
purported  to  be.  Although  largely  suppressed 
during  these  years,  views  of  California  that 
diverged  from  the  white  booster  image  did  exist 
and  would  soon  gain  greater  visibility.  Indeed, 
this  was  the  last  period  in  which  a  glowing  con- 
ception of  the  state  prevailed,  or  in  fact  when 
any  cohesive  image  could  be  said  to  dominate. 
After  this  point,  California  would  become  a 
contested  Eden. 


'ews  Clark  Jr.  founds  the  Philharmonic  Orchestra  of  Los  flngeles. 


1  For  migration  statistics,  see  Robert  M. 
Fogelson,  The  Fragmented  Metropolis: 
Los  Angeles,  2850-1930  (Berkeley  and  Los 
Angeles:  University  of  California  Press,  1967), 
78.  On  manufacture  increase,  see  Carey 
McWilliams,  Southern  California:  An  Island 
on  the  Land  (1946;  reprint,  Salt  Lake  City: 
Peregrine  Smith,  1990),  130. 

2  On  the  migrant  population  in  Los  Angeles, 
as  distinct  from  San  Francisco  as  well  as  other 
American  cities  at  the  turn  of  the  century, 
see  Fogelson,  Fragmented  Metropolis,  68-81. 

3  Ibid.,  143. 

4  On  the  role  of  the  railroads  in  promoting 
California  and  other  western  states,  see 
Alfred  Runte,  "Promoting  the  Golden  West; 
Advertising  and  the  Railroad,"  California 
History  70  (1991):  62-65. 

5  Kevin  Starr,  Inventing  the  Dream:  California 
through  the  Progressive  Era  (New  York: 
O.xford  University  Press,  1985),  89. 

i  Ibid.,  76-77,  82-83. 

7  Susan  Landauer,  "Impressionism's  Indian 
Summer:  The  Culture  and  Consumption  of 
California  'Plein-Air'  Painting,"  in  California 
Impressionists,  exh.  cat.  (Athens,  Ga.:  Georgia 
Museum  of  Art,  University  of  Georgia,  and 
the  Irvine  Museum,  in  association  with 
University  of  California  Press,  Berkeley  and 
Los  Angeles,  1996),  11-49. 

8  McWilliams,  Southern  California,  149. 

»  For  further  discussion  of  this  painting  and 
other  images  of  the  San  Francisco  earthquake 
and  fire,  see  Claire  Perry,  Pacific  Arcadia:  Images 
of  California,  1600-191$,  exh.  cat.  (New  York: 
Oxford  University  Press,  1999),  187-92. 

10  Henry  Nash  Smith  uses  the  term  "virgin 
land"  to  characterize  mythic  conceptions  of 
the  West  in  the  nineteenth-century  popular 
imagination  that  culminated  in  Frederick 
lackson  Turner's  frontier  hypothesis.  Smith  is 
referring  to  an  essentially  agrarian  Utopia,  as 
opposed  to  a  land  completely  devoid  of  habi- 
tation. See  Smith's  Virgin  Land:  The  American 
West  as  Symbol  and  Myth  (New  York:  Vintage 
Books,  1950).  East  Coast  Impressionists  also 
painted  nostalgic  visions  of  the  premodern 
natural  landscape.  See  H.  Barbara  Weinberg, 
Doreen  Bolger,  and  David  Park  Curry, 
American  Impressionism  and  Realism:  The 
Painting  of  Modern  Life,  1885-1915,  exh.  cat. 
(New  York:  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art, 
1994),  67-77. 

11  Quoted  in  Landauer,  "Impressionism's 
Indian  Summer,"  21. 

12  The  protest  letter,  signed  by  lohn  Muir 
et  al.,  Nov.  1, 1907,  stated,  "As  a  lover  of  the 
Yosemite  National  Park,  1  most  devoutly 
protest  against  the  use  of  one  of  its  most 
important  and  beautiful  features,  the 


Hctch  Hetchy,  as  a  reservoir.  An  abundance 
of  water  can  be  had  elsewhere  to  supply 
San  Francisco."  William  Bad^  Papers,  Hetch 
Hetchy  folder,  Bancroft  Library,  University 
of  California,  Berkeley.  On  the  Hetch  Hetchy 
controversy,  see  Gray  Brechin,  Imperial 
San  Francisco:  Urban  Power,  Earthly  Rum 
(Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles:  University  of 
California  Press,  1999),  101, 102, 108-10. 
13  lohn  R.  Freeman,  On  the  Proposed  Use  of 
a  Portion  of  the  Hctch-Hetchy,  Eleanor  and 
Cherry  Valleys  (San  Francisco:  Rincon,  1912). 
u  Similarly,  in  Southern  California  the  arts 
contributed  to  the  promotion  of  such  tourist 
destinations  as  Mt.  Lowe  in  the  San  Gabriel 
Mountains. 

15  Landauer,  "Impressionism's  Indian 
Summer,"  22. 

16  Ibid.,  40. 

17  Willard  Huntington  Wright,  "Hotbed  of 
Soulful  Culture,  Vortex  of  Erotic  Erudition," 
Los  Angeles  Times,  May  22, 1910. 

18  Earl  Pomeroy,  In  Search  of  the  Golden 
West:  The  Tourist  in  Western  America 
(New  York:  Knopf,  1957),  23. 

19  Kevin  Starr,  Americans  and  the  California 
Dream:  1850-1915  (New  York:  Oxford  Univer- 
sity Press,  1973),  268.  On  the  art  community 
at  Carmel,  see  also  Michael  Orth,  "Ideality  to 
Reality:  The  Founding  of  Carmel,"  California 
Historical  Society  Quarterly  4S  (1959):  195-210. 

20  Ilene  Susan  Fort,  "The  Cosmopolitan  Guy 
Rose,"  in  Patricia  Trenton  and  William  H. 
Gerdts,  California  Light  1900-1950,  exh.  cat. 
(Laguna  Beach:  Laguna  Art  Museum,  1990),  111. 

21  On  tourism  and  the  Hotel  Del  Monte,  see 
Pomeroy,  In  Search  of  the  Golden  West,  19-20. 

22  On  California's  agricultural  history  told 
from  the  perspective  of  labor,  see  Cletus  E. 
Daniel,  Bitter  Harvest:  A  History  of  California 
Farmworkers,  1870-1941  (Ithaca,  N.Y.:  Cornell 
University  Press,  1981). 

23  A  Time  and  Place:  From  the  Ries  Collection 
of  California  Painting,  exh.  cat.  (Oakland: 
Oakland  Museum  Art  Department,  1990),  34. 

24  Reflections  of  California:  The  Athalie 
Richardson  Irvine  Clarke  Memorial  Exhibition, 
exh.  cat.  (Irvine:  Irvine  Museum,  1992),  158. 

25  On  Wheatland  and  the  involvement  of 
the  iww  in  organizing  migratory  laborers 
through  World  War  I,  see  Daniel,  Bitter 
Harvest,  86-98. 

26  See  Starr,  Inventing  the  Dream,  77. 

27  Bayside  Bohemia:  Fin  de  Siecle  San  Francisco 
and  Its  Little  Magazines  (San  Francisco,  1954), 
20-21,  quoted  in  Starr,  Americans  and  the 
California  Dream,  259. 

28  McWilliams,  Southern  California,  22. 

29  lohn  Ott,  "Missionary  Work:  Labor, 
Nostalgia,  Philanthropy,  and  the  California 


Mission  Revival,  1883-1920,"  paper  delivered 
at  American  Studies  A.ssociation  conference, 
Seattle,  Nov.  1998. 

30  "To  Make  Better  Indians"  was  the  motto 
of  the  Sequoya  League.  See  their  second  bul- 
letin. The  Relief  of  Campo  [c.  1905].  Archives 
of  the  Southwest  Museum,  Sequoya  League, 
Bulletins  folder. 

31  "Pictures  of  Misery:  California's  Mission 
Indians,  the  Most  Pitiable  Band  on  the 
American  Continent.  What  They  Really 
Need,"  New  York  Herald,  Mar.  21, 1897.  Topical 
California  Collection,  Mission  Indians  Box, 
Huntington  Library,  Prints  and  Drawings 
Department,  San  Marino,  California. 

32  Harry  Ellington  Brook,  "Olden  Times  in 
Southern  California,"  Land  of  Sunshine, 
July  1894,  29-31. 

33  Starr,  Inventing  the  Dream,  56-57. 

34  K.  Scott  Wong,  "Cultural  Defenders  and 
Brokers:  Chinese  Responses  to  the  Anti- 
Chinese  Movement,"  in  Claiming  America: 
Constructing  Chitiese  American  Identities 
during  the  Exclusion  Era,  ed.  K.  Scott  Wong 
and  Sucheng  Chan  (Philadelphia:  Temple 
University  Press,  1998),  5. 

35  "The  Chinese  Question,"  Overland 
Monthly  5%,  no.  4  (Oct.  1901):  257,  256. 

36  Keith  E  Davis,  An  American  Century  of 
Photography:  From  Dry-Plate  to  Digital, 
The  Hallmark  Photographic  Collection,  2nd 
ed.  (Kansas  City,  Mo.:  Hallmark  Cards  in 
association  with  Harry  N.  Abrams,  New  York, 
1995).  32-33- 

37  Robert  W.  Rydell,  All  the  World's  a  Fair: 
Visions  of  Empire  at  American  International 
Expositions,  1879-1916  (Chicago:  University  of 
Chicago  Press,  1984),  235-37. 

38  Ibid.,  209,  211. 

39  Harry  Ellington  Brook,  Southern  California: 
The  Land  of  Sunshine,  An  Authentic  Description 
of  Its  Natural  Features,  Resources,  and  Prospects 
(Los  Angeles:  World's  Fair  Association  and 
Bureau  of  Information,  1893). 

40  Both  are  quoted  in  Phoebe  S.  Kropp, 
"'There  is  a  little  sermon  in  that':  Construct- 
ing the  Native  Southwest  at  the  San  Diego 
Panama-California  E.xposition  of  1915,"  in 
The  Great  Southwest  of  the  Fred  Harvey 
Company  and  the  Santa  Fe  Railway,  ed. 
Marta  Weigle  and  Barbara  A.  Babcock,  exh. 
cat.  (Phoenix:  Heard  Museum,  1996),  43. 

41  Ibid. 

42  Rydell,  All  the  World's  a  Fair,  229. 

43  Ibid.,  228. 

44  For  the  best  analysis  of  the  Painted  Desert, 
see  Kropp,  "'There  is  a  little  sermon  in  that,'" 
36-44- 

45  Ibid.,  ^6,44. 


CONTESTED   EDEN    1920-1940 


Sheri  Bernstein 


Diego  Rivera 

Allegory  of  California 
(detail),  1931,  mural,  Stock 
Exchange  Building  (now  City 
Club  of  San  Francisco) 
(scale  reconstruction  m 
exhibition) 


Throughout  the  first  twenty  years  of  this  century,  on  idyllic  and  remark- 
ably cohesive  picture  of  California  dominated  the  popular  imagination  as 
well  as  cultural  production.  This  was  far  from  the  case,  however,  in  the 
subsequent  decades  between  the  two  world  wars,  during  which  the  coun- 
try experienced  profound  shifts  of  dramatic  proportions.  The  boom  of  the 
1920s,  which  historian  William  E.  Leuchtenberg 
has  characterized  as  a  decade  of  "piping  prosper- 
ity,"' gave  way  to  blight  in  the  1930s,  as  the  entire 
nation  struggled  through  the  Great  Depression. 
Whereas  California  was  lauded  as  being  at  the  epi- 
center of  the  boom — celebrated  for  the  first  time 
as  much  for  its  modern  sophistication  as  for  its 
beauty  and  bounty — its  glowing  booster  image 
was  powerfully  contested  during  the  Depression 
years.  At  that  time,  critical  visions  of  the  state 
often  put  forward  by  and  on  behalf  of  the  working 
class  circulated  widely.  Yet  along  with  these  more 
sobering  views,  a  fairy-tale  image  of  Hollywood 
permeated  the  national  consciousness,  providing  a 
much-needed  antidote  to  the  troubles  of  the  day. 
Complicating  the  state's  image  even  further  was 
the  fact  that  a  considerable  range  of  perspectives 
on  California's  ethnic  character — including  those 
of  non-Anglos — were  promulgated  throughout 
this  twenty-year  span,  informed  by  the  nation's 
struggle  to  define  its  complex  relationship  to  Latin 
America  and  Asia.  For  these  reasons,  as  well  as 
because  of  the  incessant  migration  of  an  unprece- 
dented number  and  diversity  of  newcomers,  mul- 
tiplicity and  inconstancy  aptly  characterize  the 
image  of  California  during  the  1920s  and  1930s. 

A  salient  new  aspect  of  California's  image 
was  its  urban  character,  which  had  been  largely 
eclipsed  until  the  1920s  by  Edenic  visions  of  the 
state  as  a  premodern  paradise.  The  proliferation 
of  urban  views  of  California  spoke  to  the  massive 
urban  growth  then  occurring  in  the  Bay  Area 
and,  to  an  even  greater  extent,  in  Southern 
California.  The  vast  majority  of  the  1.5  million 
people  who  flooded  into  the  Southland  between 
1920  and  1930  settled  in  urban  areas,  sparking  a 


major  surge  in  real  estate  development  and  the 
creation  of  eight  new  cities  in  Los  Angeles 
County  alone.  By  1920  Los  Angeles  had  surpassed 
San  Francisco  as  the  largest  city  in  California; 
and  by  the  end  of  that  decade,  in  the  wake  of  the 
oil  boom,  it  had  emerged  as  the  fourth-largest 
urban  center  in  America.  Not  surprisingly, 
Los  Angeles  had  begun  to  develop  the  problems 
of  a  modern  city.  With  two  automobiles  for  every 
three  people  in  Los  Angeles  by  1929,  traffic  became 
a  constant,  defining  feature.  San  Francisco,  too, 
although  it  had  fewer  people  and  cars  than 
Los  Angeles,  was  a  sizable  metropolis  of  630,000 
residents  by  1930,  with  a  thriving  corporate  and 
commercial  sector  and  an  identity  as  the  West 
Coast  hub  for  maritime  trade. 

With  big  business  striving  to  attract 
and  provide  for  increasing  numbers  of  tourists 
and  new  residents,  boosterism  in  California 
reached  an  all-time  high  during  the  1920s. 
The  Los  Angeles  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  its 
institutional  counterparts  in  other  CaUfornia 
cities  expanded  their  ongoing  efforts,  and  new 
organizations  sprang  up,  such  as  the  All-Year 
Club  of  Southern  California,  which  was  founded 
in  1921  by  Los  Angeles  Times  publisher  Harry 
Chandler  to  promote  summer  tourism  in  the 
region.  In  addition,  the  Automobile  Club  of 
Southern  California  significantly  expanded  its 
publication  Touring  Topics  (renamed  Westways  in 
1934)  under  the  editorship  of  Phil  Townsend 
Hanna.  Far  more  than  a  travel  magazine,  Touring 
Topics  became  a  central  cultural  voice  in  the  area, 
employing  numerous  artists  and  writers,  fi-om 
the  conventional  to  the  modernist.  This  publica- 
tion's existence,  like  that  of  Land  of  Sunshine 
during  the  previous  two  decades,  attests  to  the 
faithful  marriage  of  boosterism  and  the  arts  that 
existed  in  Southern  California,  a  marriage  then 
flourishing  to  varying  degrees  in  different 
regions  nationwide. 


19  2  8     >    Alien  land  Law  is  passed  by  a  3-to-l  majority,  prohibiting  Japanese  ownership  of  or  investment  in  California  land.  This  is  designed  to  block  the  loopholes  in  a  si 


passed  in  1913      >    S< 


Miki  HayakowQ 

Millard  Sheets 

Barse  Miller 

Charles  Payzant 

Frederic  Penney 

Telegraph  Hill,  n.d.,  oil  on 

Angel's  Flight,  1931,  oil  on 

Apparition  over 

Los  Angeles, 

l^ilshire  Boulevard.  cA<)lO, 

Madonna  of  Chavez  Ravine, 

convQS 

canvas 

1932,  oil  on  can 

vos 

watercolor  on  paper 

c.  1932,  watercolor  on  pope 

Particularly  by  the  late  1920s,  a  considerable 
number  of  artists  began  to  celebrate  California's 
urban  landscape.  Some  stressed  the  picturesque 
quality  of  the  state's  burgeoning  cities,  which 
necessitated  altering  the  less  scenic  realities  of 
urban  life.  Miki  Hayakawa,  for  example,  chose 
to  efface  any  trace  of  the  bustling,  bohemian 
community  of  Telegraph  Hill  in  San  Francisco, 
producing  a  distinctly  Cezannesque  rendering 
of  buildings  peacefully  nestled  on  the  hillside. 
A  similarly  picturesque  though  more  humanistic 
perspective  was  offered  by  American  Scene 
painter  Millard  Sheets,  who  pictured  the  every- 
day life  of  Bunker  Hill,  a  working-class  residen- 
tial neighborhood  in  downtown  Los  Angeles. 
The  title.  Angel's  Flight,  refers  to  the  funicular 
that  transported  residents  up  and  down  Bunker 
Hill's  steeply  graded  incline,  but  Sheets  opted  not 
to  depict  this  mechanical  convenience.  Instead  he 
concentrated  on  two  flights  of  stairs  that  led  up 
the  hill  and  falsely  portrayed  their  ascent  as  cir- 
cuitous rather  than  straight  so  as  to  enhance  the 
charm  of  the  scene.  Once  a  haven  for  the  city's 
elite.  Bunker  Hill  had  a  sizable  poor  immigrant 
population  by  the  1920s.  Yet  Sheets's  painting 
includes  only  white  subjects;  in  fact,  he  used  his 
own  wife  as  a  model  for  the  two  main  figures. 
Many  other  white  artists  also  shied  away  from 


lol  of  the  Arts  Is  founded      >    Hollywood  Art  Association  Is  founded.     >    Ttie  oil  boom  of  ttie  1920s  begins  with  the  Standard  Oil  strike  at  Huntington  Beach,  followed  by  the  Shell  Oil  strike  at  Signal  Hill 


depicting  the  ethnic  minorities  who  were  rele- 
gated to  particular  urban  neighborhoods  by 
restrictive  real  estate  covenants  and  unregulated 
racist  practices  throughout  the  state.  As  one 
realtor  in  Whittier  boasted,  "Race  segregation  is 
not  a  serious  problem  with  us.  Our  realtors  do 
not  sell  [to]  Mexicans  and  Japanese  outside  cer- 
tain sections  where  it  is  agreed  by  community 
custom  they  shall  reside."^  Booster  organizations 
such  as  the  Los  Angeles  Chamber  of  Commerce 
similarly  avoided  depicting  nonwhite  ethnic 
communities  in  their  countless  photographs  of 
city  life.  On  the  rare  occasions  when  such  com- 
munities were  represented,  either  in  promotional 
literature  or  in  a  fine-art  context,  they  appeared 
as  if  eternally  frozen  in  a  romantic  and  spiritual 
past.  This  is  the  case,  for  example,  in  Madonna 
of  Chavez  Ravine  by  Frederic  Penney.  While  the 
artist  clearly  intended  to  honor  the  Mexican 
people  of  Chavez  Ravine  by  portraying  them  as 
saints,  he  effectively  denied  their  existence  as 
contemporary,  ordinary  individuals.  In  contrast 
to  the  proponents  of  the  picturesque  urban  land- 
scape, other  artists  heralded  the  modern  aspects 
of  California's  cities.  Many  focused,  for  example, 
on  industrial  subjects  or  public  works,  including 
the  recently  erected  dams  that  collected  water 
from  the  Colorado  River  (Southern  California's 


the  following  year,  fl  third  major  strike  Is  made  by  George  Franklin  Getty  at  Telegraph  Hill,  which  produces  70  million  barrels  a  year  by  1923.  Prosperity  due  to  the  oil  boom  attracts  migrants  from  the  South 


Childe  Hassam 

California  Oil  Fields,  1927, 
etching 


California  Highways  and 
Public  Marks  magazine, 
January  1940.  Lent  by  the 
Caltrans  Transportation 
Library 


Shinsaku  Izumi 

Tunnel  of  Night,  c.  1931 
gelatm-silver  print 


Peter  Stackpole 

The  Lone  Riveter 
gelatin-siluer  pr 


Official  program  for  the 
San  Francisco-Ookland  Boy 
Bridge  celebration,  1936, 
Lentbyjim  Heimann 


Carquinez  Bridge,  1933, 
gelatin-silver  print 


EF 


i^ALIFORrilA 

'AYS  AND  PUBLIC  WORKS 


new  major  water  source  as  of  1928)  or  on  the 
bridges  that  numbered  among  the  significant 
public-works  projects  of  the  mid-i930S.  Some 
naturalized  these  subjects.  Childe  Hassam's  oil 
derricks — veritable  icons  of  the  Southern 
California  landscape  in  the  early  1920s,  most 
notably  in  Signal  Hill,  Huntington  Beach,  and 
Long  Beach — suggest  a  forest  of  trees.  Others 
humanized  their  modern  scenes  by  adding 
figures.  Peter  Stackpole's  breathtaking  views  of 
the  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge  under 
construction,  which  appeared  in  Life  magazine, 
celebrate  the  technological  and  psychological 
feats  of  erecting  this  structure. 

Still  other  creative  figures,  predominantly 
photographers  and  designers  rather  than 
painters,  employed  a  visual  language  of  sleek 
forms  and  smooth  textures,  closely  in  keeping 
with  industrialization,  in  addressing  the 
California  landscape.  Photographer  Alma 
Lavenson,  for  example,  rejected  the  filmy 
aesthetic  of  Pictorialism  in  favor  of  the  cleaner 
look  of  "straight"  photography  associated  with 


fornia's  African  flmerican  population  doubles  in  the  early  1920s.  However,  restrictive  covenants  and  segregation  keep  blacks  out  of  better  neighbortioods      >    Automobile  ownership  accelerates  in  Californr 


forever  changing  the  landscape.  Roadside  amenities  and  attractions  are  created,  such  as  Knott's  Berry  Farm.     >    V/ilshire  Boulevard,  In  Los  flngeles,  is  partially  paved.  Between  La  Brea  flvenue  and  Be 


Maynard  Dixon 

Airplane,  c.  1930,  gouache 
paper 


Brochure  produced  by  the  Los 

Angeles  Department 

of  Water  and  Power,  1928. 

Lent  by  use.  Regional  History 

Center,  Department  of  Special 

Collections 


Edward  Biberman 

Sepulveda  Dam,  n.c 


the  California-based  Group  f/64.  In  their  cool 
exactness  and  industrial  subject  matter,  her 
works  were  also  in  sympathy  with  the  paintings 
of  contemporaneous  East  Coast-based 
Precisionists.  Among  the  California  designers 
most  directly  inspired  by  the  new  technology  was 
Kem  Weber;  a  clean,  minimal  aesthetic  is  visible 
in  the  streamlined  form  of  his  Airline  Armchair 
of  1934-35- 

Weber's  enthusiasm  for  the  airplane  was 
shared  by  many.  Indeed,  excitement  over  the 
thriving  aviation  industry  pervaded  Southern 
California  cuhure  in  the  1920s  and  1930s.  Boosters 
seized  every  opportunity  to  bill  the  region  as  the 
aviation  capital  of  the  world,  heavily  publicizing 
such  events  as  Charles  Lindbergh's  triumphal 
return  to  Los  Angeles  after  completing  a  trans- 
Atlantic  flight  from  New  York  to  Paris  in  1927.^ 
Public  interest  in  aviation  not  only  infiased  the 
work  of  designers  such  as  Weber  but  also  fueled 
production  in  the  visual  arts,  thereby  providing 
another  point  of  confluence  between  boosterism 
and  artistic  production.  Touring  Topics,  for  exam- 
ple, featured  a  painting  of  an  airplane  by 
Maynard  Dixon  on  its  December  1930  cover;  this 
was  the  culminating  work  in  a  twelve-part  series 
on  the  history  of  transportation  that  Dixon  exe- 
cuted for  the  magazine.  Helen  Lundeberg  also  cel- 
ebrated air  flight  as  the  pinnacle  of  transportation 
history  in  her  eight-panel  mural  for  Centinela 
Park  in  Inglewood.  Publications  that  promoted 
industry,  such  as  Southern  California  Business, 
devoured  these  images,  vastly  preferring  them  to 
picturesque  visions  of  urban  life.  Yet  chamber  of 
commerce  and  Ail-Year  Club  publications  fea- 
tured both  types  of  urban  views — the  forward 
looking  and  the  nostalgic — often  within  a  single 
issue  or  brochure,  since  both  highlighted  mar- 
ketable aspects  of  California's  appeal  to  tourists 
and  newcomers. 


a  dirt  road  surrounded  by  barley  fields,  oil  wells,  and  empty  acreage. 


1  92 


>    Los  Rngeles  Times  publ 


Harry  Chandler,  along  with  businessmen  and  real  estate  boosters,  founds 


Helen  Lundeberg 

The  History  of  Transportation 
in  California  (Panel  8),  study 
for  mural  in  Centinela  Park, 
Inglewood,  1940,  gouache  on 
paper 


Kern  Weber 

Airline  Armchair,  c.  1934-35, 
hickory,  alder,  maple,  metal, 
and  leather 


Julius  Shulman 

Lovell  "Health"  House,  1950, 
gelatm-silver  print 


Early  Modernism 

Many  architects  and  designers  who 
emigrated  from  Europe  to  the  United 
States  were  drawn  to  Los  Angeles, 
where  they  created  innovative  build- 
ings, interiors,  and  furniture.  They 
brought  with  them  the  principles  of 


modernism,  which  found  beauty  in 
the  useful  and  strove  for  originality. 
Modernism  sought  to  join  purity 
of  design  and  utility,  and  those 
influenced  by  it  championed  new 
technologies,  mass  production,  and 
the  use  of  geometric  shapes  and 
spare  lines.  The  aggressive  and 
experimental  approach  of  trans- 
planted Europeans  led  to  the  synthe- 
sis of  the  California  Modern  style. 
Two  important  immigrants  were 
Viennese  architects  Rudolph  Schindler 
and  Richard  Neutra.  Schindler 
designed  his  own  residence,  the 
radical  Studio  House  on  Kings  Road, 


J^  of  Southern  California  to  promote  tourisr 


sninq  this  year  are  the  San  Francisco  Mi. 


and  the  San  Diego  Academy  of  Fine  Rrts 


of  concrete  and  redwood,  with  an 
open  plan  and  sliding  porch  doors 
that  dissolved  boundaries  between 
indoors  and  outdoors.  Neutro  created 
the  Lovell  "Health"  House,  the  first 
U.S.  structure  with  a  steel  frame. 
Its  expanses  of  glass  united  the  inte- 
rior with  the  hillside  surroundings, 
creating  an  environnnent  for  the 
signature  California  lifestyle. 

The  Made  in  California  period 
environment  featured  furniture 
designed  by  Schindler  in  the  1930s 
for  the  Shep  Residence,  a  commission 
that  was  never  realized.  Schindler 
called  these  pieces  "unit  furniture." 
Not  just  knock-down  or  sectional, 
they  are  composed  of  parts  that  can 
be  assembled  in  various  combina- 
tions. These  austere  and  tasteful 
pieces  are  all  low,  wide,  and  horizon- 
tal, echoing  the  low  horizon  of  the 
Southern  California  landscape. 
The  living  room  included  a  modular 
sofa,  an  armchair,  on  ottoman,  an 
end  table,  and  a  stackoble  storage 
chest,  all  of  which  reflect  the 
architect's  interest  in  economy  of 
space  and  multiple  use.  The  dining 


background 
Rudolph  Schindler 

Milton  Shep  Residence 
[Project],  Los  Angeles, 
Perspective  Elevation, 
1934-35,  colored  pencil  on 
paper 


Porter  Blanchard  Rudolph  Schindler 

Coffee  Set  and  Tray,  1930-50,  Armchair  and  Ottoman, 

pewter  and  hardwood  1936-38,  gumwood  and 

upholstery 


Mario  Kipp 

Textile  Length  for  Drapery, 
c.  1938,  mohair,  Lurex,  and 
chenille 


area  showcased  an  expandable  table 
with  alternating  chairs  and  stools. 
Schindler  created  an  aesthetically 
integrated  modernist  interior  by 
using  0  versatile  suite  of  movable 
components — the  furniture — and  by 
carefully  selecting  the  appropriate 
backdrops  in  the  draperies  and 
carpets.  In  this  way  he  was  able  to 
unite  all  elements  into  an  elegant, 
clean-lined,  and  efficient  interior 
space  expressive  of  the  new  modern 
style  in  California,    jo  lauria 


The  garden  will  become  an  integral  part  of  the  house.  The  distinction  between 
indoors  and  outdoors  will  disappear,     rudolph  schindler 


•rcolor  Society  founded  In  Los  fingeles,     >    Sabato  (Simon)  Rodia  begins  work  on  the  Watts  Towers  in  Los  ftnqeles      >     192  2     >    Throughout  the  1910s  and  1320s,  specially  decorated  trains  and  colorful 


Glen  Lukens 

Gray  Bowl,  c.  1940, 
earthenware 


Rudolph  Schlndter 

Bedroom  Dresser  with  Hinged 
Half-Round  Mirror,  1936-38, 
gumwood  and  mirror 


crate,  labels  market  California  oranges  nationwide.  Chambers  of  commerce,  the  flII-Year  Club,  and  other  organizations  Join  the  advertising  campaigns.     >     19  2  3     >    Under  California's  Crimina 


Fletcher  Martin 

Herman  Volz 

Lee  Everett  Blair 

Behind  the  Materfront, 

Trouble  in  Frisco,  c 

.1935, 

San  Francisco  Materfront 

Dissenting  Factions,  1940, 

designed  and  illustrated  by 

lithograph 

Strike,  1934,  lithograph 

watercolor  on  paper 

Giocomo  Patn,  c.  1940.  Lent 
by  San  Francisco  State 
University,  Labor  Archives  and 
Research  Center 

author  Upton  Sinclair  Is  arrested  for  reading  tfie  U.S.  Constitution  In  public  during  an  Industrial  Workers  of  ttie  World  strike  in  San  Pedro.     >    Painters'  and  Sculptors'  Club  of  Los  fingeles  is  founded      >    More 


Bernard  Zakheim 

Library,  1934,  mural, 
Coit  Tower,  Pioneer  Par 
San  Francisco 
(scale  reconstruction  i 
exhibition) 


Not  all  of  the  urban  images  generated  by 
artists  during  this  period,  however,  supported 
boosterism.  While  criticisms  of  California  had 
been  issued  earlier  in  the  century,  mainly  by  radi- 
cal voices  such  as  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the 
World,  in  the  1930s  they  began  to  permeate  the 
visual  arts.  This  coincided,  of  course,  with  the 
onset  of  the  Depression  and  the  growing  visibil- 
ity of  the  political  Left.  The  latter  was  plainly  evi- 
denced by  the  capture  of  the  Democratic 
gubernatorial  nomination  in  1934  by  writer  and 
left-wing  populist  Upton  Sinclair,  who  authored 
the  End  Poverty  in  California  (epic)  program. 
As  never  before  in  the  state,  radical  artists 
became  a  strong  and  vocal  presence.  This  mir- 
rored a  trend  in  the  country  at  large,  which  had 
been  prefigured  by  a  strong  tradition  of  political 
activism  among  New  York  artists  and  intellectu- 
als since  the  turn  of  the  century.  Within 
California,  radicalism  could  be  felt  most  force- 
fully in  San  Francisco.  There,  creative  figures  on 
the  far  Left — including  many  Jewish  and  other 
European  immigrants — formed  an  alliance 
known  as  the  Artists'  and  Writers'  Union,  loosely 
affiliated  with  the  then  ethnically  diverse  and  aes- 
thetically open-minded  local  branch  of  the 
Communist  Party."  Predictably,  the  works  of 
these  and  other  leftists  in  California  were  princi- 
pally concerned  with  the  state's  organized  labor: 
its  inherent  dignity  and  its  exploitation. 

One  much-treated  subject  by  radical 
artists — most  notoriously  by  Anton  Refregier  in 
his  controversial  Rincon  Annex  murals  of  the 
1940s — was  the  General  Strike  of  1934,  in  which 
more  than  34,000  San  Francisco  waterfront  and 
maritime  workers  walked  off  their  jobs,  virtually 
paralyzing  the  city.^  This  uprising  occurred  under 
the  forceful  leadership  of  Australian-born  labor 
activist  Harry  Bridges,  who  became  a  cult  hero 
for  the  Left.  Herman  Volz  was  among  the  artists 
to  depict  the  grave  events  of  July  5,  known  as  the 


strike's  Bloody  Thursday,  when  police  action 
resulted  in  the  deaths  of  two  longshoremen. 
Italian  immigrant  Giacomo  Patri  was  another 
figure  sympathetic  to  labor.  He  illustrated  publi- 
cations for  the  waterfront  union  and  the  local 
branch  of  the  Communist  Party  and  authored 
the  powerful  White  Collar:  A  Novel  in  Linocuts 
(1940),  which  documented  the  mobilization  of 
workers  in  support  of  the  labor  movement. 
A  contemporaneous  instance  in  which 
radicalism  came  to  the  fore  was  the  mural  project 
for  San  Francisco's  Coit  Tower,  a  structure  built 
from  1932  to  1933  to  eulogize  prominent  Bay  Area 
benefactor  Lillie  Hitchcock  Coit.  Conservative 
responses  to  several  of  the  twenty-seven  murals 
produced  for  the  tower's  interior — all  of  which 
related  to  the  theme  "Aspects  of  California  Life, 
1934" — were  exacerbated  by  the  events  of  the 
1934  waterfront  strike.  Federally  funded  through 
the  short-lived  Public  Works  of  Art  Project 
(PWAP),  which  preceded  the  Work  Projects 


Administration  (wpa),  the  Coit  Tower  murals 
were  masterminded  by  one  of  San  Francisco's 
old-guard  patrons,  Herbert  Fleishhacker. 
Fleishhacker  appears  to  have  conceived  of  the 
murals  as  a  means  of  curbing  budding  militant 
radicalism  in  the  area  by  appeasing  leftist  artists 
such  as  Bernard  Zakheim  and  Victor  Arnautoff, 
whom  he  named  the  project's  idea  man  and  its 
supervisor,  respectively.' 

Yet  under  the  leadership  of  Zakheim  and 
Arnautoff,  who  had  both  worked  with  Mexican 
muralist  Diego  Rivera  and  were  members  of  the 
Artists'  and  Writers'  Union,  the  project  in  fact 
yielded  a  handful  of  highly  charged  murals  on 
labor-related  subjects.  Several  of  these  inspired 
accusations  in  the  mainstream  press  of 
Communist  propagandizing.  Zakheim's  depic- 
tion of  a  library  scene,  for  example,  was  deemed 
"red  propaganda"  in  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle, 
because  it  included  such  details  as  a  newspaper 
headline  that  obliquely  referenced  Harry  Bridges 


than  20,000  actors  and  actresses  are  working  in  Hollywood,  their  weekly  Incomes  totaling  over  a  million  dollars.     >     19  24     >    Increased  use  of  cars  spawns  new  publications  like  the  fiutomobile  C 


»^mm^ 

'T^H(P^*S^^^^^^^P 

hern  California's  Touring  Topics,  which  advertises  such  California  sites  as  Death  Valley  and  Yosemite.     >    The  National  Origins  Act  is  passed,  limiting  the  number  of  Immigrants  admitted  annually  to 


Booklet  produced  by  the 

John  Gutmann 

John  Langley  Howard 

Otto  Hogel 

Dorothea  Lange 

Southern  California 

The  Cry,  1939,  gelatin- 

The  Unemployed,  1937,  oil  on 

Untitled  [Maritime  Workers 

A  Sign  of  the  Times- 

Proletarian  Culture  League, 

silver  print 

cardboard 

Looking  for  Work],  c.  1935, 

Depression— Mended 

cover  by  yotokuMiyagi,  1931. 

gelatm-silver  print 

Stockings— Stenographer, 

Lent  by  UCLA  Library, 

San  Francisco,  c.mA, 

Department  of  Special 

gelatin-silver  print 

Collections 

as  well  as  an  image  of  artist  John  Langley 
Howard  reaching  for  a  copy  of  Karl  Marx's  Das 
KapitaU  Eventually,  the  pwap  elected  to  white- 
wash part  of  one  mural  by  Clifford  Wight  that 
contained  a  hammer  and  sickle.  In  addition, 
Coit  Tower  was  closed  to  the  public  for  several 
months  after  the  waterfront  strike  in  an  effort  to 
avoid  further  galvanizing  leftists  within  the  city. 
Less  militant  and  more  sentimental  than 
the  subject  of  a  united  working  class  was  that 
of  urban  poverty  and  unemployment,  which 
garnered  the  interest  of  New  Deal  centrists  and 
a  spectrum  of  leftists  during  the  Depression 
years.  John  Langley  Howard,  who  painted  one 
of  the  Coit  Tower  murals,  was  the  brother-in-law 
of  a  waterfront  worker  who  participated  in  the 
strike.  Howard  bemoaned  the  plight  of  California's 
unemployed  by  means  of  a  critical  realist  style 
popular  among  artists  of  the  far  Left.  Some 
images  of  poverty  and  joblessness  in  California 
circulated  more  widely  in  mainstream  magazines 


such  as  Life,  as  well  as  in  leftist  publications  such 
as  Survey  Graphic.  Photographs  by  Dorothea 
Lange  and  Otto  Hagel,  for  example,  humanized 
their  subjects  for  broad  audiences.  Those  who 
took  a  more  elliptical  approach  included  German 
Jewish  emigre  John  Gutmann,  whose  photo- 
graphs of  San  Francisco's  urban  poor,  such  as 
The  Cry,  were  informed  by  Surrealism  and 
offered  the  more  distanced  perspective  of  a 
European  observer. 

While  urban  views  of  California  prolifer- 
ated during  these  years,  the  natural  landscape 
remained  an  enduring  motif.  Its  identity  became 
increasingly  contested,  however,  as  images  of 
cultivated  landscapes  came  to  rival  those  of 
untouched  terrain,  which  had  dominated  cultural 
production  before  1920.  Evidence  of  human 
labor — either  the  actual  presence  of  workers  or 
their  implied  presence  in  the  form  of  farmhouses 
and  tilled  fields — especially  characterized  the  cul- 
tivated landscape.  The  preponderance  of  signifiers 
of  labor  in  images  of  California  from  the  1920s 
and  1930s  attests  to  the  increased  attention  given 
to  workers  in  American  society  during  these  years. 

The  disparate  approaches  to  California's 
agrarian  landscape  taken  by  artists  of  the  period 
speak  directly  to  competing  perspectives  on  the 
then  highly  charged  subject  of  agricultural  labor. 
As  Carey  McWilliams  powerfully  recounts  in 
Factories  in  the  Field  (1939),  by  the  1920s  California's 
agricultural  economy  had  become  heavily  indus- 
trialized and  consolidated.  It  was  no  longer 
controlled  by  individual  farmers  and  ranchers 
but  by  "absentee  landlords" — large  and  imper- 
sonal corporations  or  wealthy  businessmen — 
who  hired  itinerant  laborers  to  work  for  meager 
wages  and  under  substandard  conditions.' 

This  shift  in  California  away  from  the 
Jeffersonian  ideal  of  small-scale  farming  toward 
an  agribusiness  economy  elicited  feelings  of  nos- 
talgia among  the  very  people  who  had  benefited 


2  percent  of  the  foreign-born  individuals  of  each  nationality  living  in  the  United  States  In  1890.  The  act  favors  immigration  from  northwestern  Europe,  The  annual  quota  for  Japan  is  40  people.     >    Los  fin 


Edward  Weston 

Tomato  Field,  1937, 
gelatin-silver  print 


Millard  Sheets 

California,  c.  1935, 
canvas 


Phil  Paradise 

Ranch  near  San  Luis  Obispo, 
Evening  Light,  c.  1935, 


Selden  Conner  Gile 

The  Soil,  1927,  oil  on 


from  the  transition.  The  heads  of  agribusiness — 
many  of  whom  were  patrons  of  important 
cultural  institutions,  such  as  San  Francisco's 
Bohemian  Club  and  the  California  School  of  Fine 
Arts — gravitated  toward  picturesque  images  of 
the  agrarian  landscape  that  naturalized  or  effaced 
the  presence  of  big  business.'  San  Francisco  artist 
Rinaldo  Cuneo's  highly  decorative  painted 
screen,  California  Landscape,  offers  a  bountiful 
expanse  of  neatly  ordered  lettuce  rows  set  against 
the  Northern  California  hills.  It  echoes  the  visual 
language  used  in  such  agribusiness  booster 
publications  as  The  Land  of  Oranges  (1930),  a 
children's  book  published  by  the  California  Fruit 
Growers  Exchange.  Cuneo  himself  romanticized 
and  aestheticized  agricultural  production,  com- 
paring the  process  of  cultivating  the  landscape 
to  that  of  composing  a  painting.'"  Other  pictur- 
esque agrarian  visions  include  scenes  of  small 
farms  or  ranches  executed  in  a  range  of  styles — 
from  the  modernism  of  Selden  Conner  Gile, 
whose  palette  was  inspired  by  the  French  Fauve 
painters,  to  the  down-home  regionalism  of 
Phil  Paradise.  Many  of  these  booster  images  of 
California  are  devoid  of  laborers  or,  in  fact,  of 
any  sign  of  utilitarian  purpose.  Yet  the  farms 
and  ranches  pictured  appear  thriving  and  well 


Rinaldo  Cuneo 

California  Landscape,  1928, 
oil  on  canvas  set  in  three-part 
screen 


The  Land  of  Oranges,  a 
coloring  book  for  children 
produced  by  the  California 
Fruit  Growers  Exchange,  1930. 
Lent  by  the  McClelland 
Collection 


Ises  San  Francisco's  In  total  annual  tonnage,  making  it  the  biggest  port  on  the  Pacific  coast      >    Pasadena  firt  Institute  opens.     >    California  Palace  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  opens  as  a  museum  of  fine  art  In 


THE     LAND    OF 

NGES 


San  Francisco,     >     19  2  5     >    flimee  Sempie  McPherson,  radio  evangelist  and  founder  of  tlie  International  Church  of  the  Foursquare  Gospel,  based  in  Los  flngeles,  is  reprimanded  by  Secretary  of  Cornrn 


maintained,  invoking  the  fantasy  of  land  that 
works  itself  with  remarkably  little  effort. 

Yet  a  great  number  of  laborers  were,  in 
fact,  working  the  land  in  California,  with  heavy 
concentrations  of  activity  in  the  Sacramento, 
Santa  Clara,  San  Joaquin,  and  Imperial  valleys. 
In  the  1920s  the  labor  force  was  dominated  by 
Mexican  and  Filipino  immigrants,  the  former 
comprising  more  than  30  percent  of  California's 
total  agricultural  workforce  by  the  early  1930s, 
and  the  latter  representing  90  percent  of  the 
labor  pool  in  Northern  California  by  1938." 
In  the  Imperial  Valley  alone,  there  were  20,000 
Mexican  laborers  by  the  late  1920s.  Extremely 
poor  conditions  gave  rise  to  union  organizing, 
particularly  among  Mexican  workers,  and  a 
number  of  uprisings  occurred,  including  the 
San  Joaquin  Valley  cotton  strike  of  1933  and  the 
Imperial  Valley  lettuce  strike  of  1934.  Mexican 
unionizing  and  strikes  met  with  "vigilante 
terrorism . . .  repressive  activities  of  large  growers 
. . .  use  of  arrest,  intimidation,  etc.,"  as  John 
Steinbeck  noted  in  Their  Blood  Is  Strong,  a  collec- 
tion of  reports  from  the  field  originally  published 
in  the  San  Francisco  News.  He  added,  "As  with 
the  Chinese  and  Japanese,  [the  Mexicans]  have 


committed  the  one  crime  that  will  not  be  per- 
mitted by  the  large  growers.  They  have  attempted 
to  organize  for  their  own  protection."'^ 

Steinbeck's  sympathetic  perspective  was 
one  of  myriad  views  voiced  at  that  time  on  immi- 
grant agricultural  labor  in  California.  Closely 
aligned  with  him  was  Dorothea  Lange,  whose 
photographs  illustrated  Their  Blood  Is  Strong. 
Yet  the  tone  of  Lange's  images — particularly  those 
approved  for  circulation  by  Roy  Stryker,  director 
of  the  federally  funded  Farm  Security  Admini- 
stration (fsa),  which  employed  Lange  during  the 
Depression — is  generally  more  appeasing  than 
inflammatory.  Her  Filipinos  Cutting  Lettuce, 
Salinas  Valley,  California,  which  recalls  Francois 
Millet's  ennobling  yet  depersonalized  nineteenth- 
century  images  of  workers,  presents  her  subjects 
in  universalizing,  nonconfrontational  terms. 
It  can  be  contrasted  with  an  unattributed  fsa 
photograph  of  Mexican  picketers  from  the  1930s. 
Since  Lange  was  the  principal  fsa  photographer 
working  in  California,  it  is  quite  possible  that 
she  took  the  latter  picture  as  well,  but  this  image 
of  blatant  protest  probably  would  not  have  met 
the  objectives  of  the  fsa. 


;rt  Hoover  for  illegally  broadcasting  off  her  assigned  wavelength.  Sister  flinnee  cables  Hoover  in  response:  "Please  order  your  minions  of  Satan  to  leave  my  station  alone  . .  You  cannot  expect  the  fllmighty  to  abide 


Diego  Rivera 

Stilt  Life  and  Blossoming 
Almond  Trees,  1931,  fresco, 
University  of  California, 
Berkeley 


Their  Blood  Is  Strong:  A 
Factual  Story  of  the  Migratory 
Agricultural  Markers  of 
California  by  John  Steinbeck, 
photographs  by  Dorothea 
Lange,  1938.  Lent  by 
San  Francisco  State 
University,  Labor  Archives 
and  Research  Center 


Stanton  MocDonaid-Wright 

Revolt,  1936,  lithograph 


Dorothea  Lange 

Filipinos  Cutting  Lettuce, 
Salinas  Valley,  California, 
c.  1935,  gelotin-silver  print 


Mexican  women  bound  for  a 
picket  line.  Farm  Security 
Administration  photograph, 
1933.  Powell  Studio 
Collection,  Bancroft  Library, 
University  of  California, 
Berkeley,  courtesy  of  the 
Library  of  Congress 


In  its  celebration  of  labor,  Lange 's  Filipinos 
Cutting  Lettuce  is  compatible  with  Rivera's  mural 
Still  Life  and  Blossoming  Almond  Trees,  commis- 
sioned by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sigmund  Stern  for  their 
private  residence  in  the  Bay  Area  (now  in  Stern 
Hall  at  the  University  of  California,  Berkeley). 
One  of  three  murals  executed  by  Rivera  during  a 
yearlong  stay  in  California  from  1930  to  1931  and 
initially  orchestrated  as  part  of  a  United  States 
cultural  rapprochement  with  Mexico,  Still  Life 
depicts  a  happy,  productive,  and  integrated  work- 
force. Surprisingly  mild  in  its  message  consider- 
ing Rivera's  leftist  political  sympathies,  this  work 
provides  a  sharp  contrast  to  David  Alfaro 
Siqueiros's  Los  Angeles  mural  Tropical  America,  a 
scathing  critique  of  North  America's  exploitation 
of  Mexican  labor  (see  p.  139). 


I 


^*r 


by  your  wavelength  nonsense."    >    San  Francisco  Society  of  Wor 


Elite  firtland  Club  is  founded  in  Los  fingeles,  dedicated  to  building  a  "temple  of  art. 


926 


Most  Depression-era  images  of  agricul- 
tural labor  in  California  reflect  the  pronounced 
changes  that  occurred  in  the  composition  of  the 
state's  workforce  during  the  1930s.  By  1937  nearly 
150,000  Mexican  laborers  had  been  deported 
to  Mexico  from  the  United  States,^'  replaced  by 
a  flood  of  white  migrants  from  the  blight- 
stricken  Dust  Bowl  of  America — predominantly 
Oklahoma  but  also  Texas,  Arkansas,  Kansas,  and 
Missouri.  The  popular  conception  of  California 
through  most  of  the  1930s  was  of  a  promised 
land  for  migrants  in  search  of  work,  but  as 
John  Steinbeck  described  in  his  monumental 
novel  The  Grapes  of  Wrath  (1939),  these  newcom- 
ers were  hardly  welcomed  by  California's  booster 
industries.  All-Year  Club  guides  of  the  1930s, 
for  example,  bore  the  following  admonition: 

WARNING!  While  attractions  for  tourists  are 
unlimited,  please  advise  anyone  seeking  employ- 
ment not  to  come  to  Southern  California,  as 
natural  attractions  have  already  drawn  so  many 
capable,  experienced  people  that  the  present 
demand  is  more  than  satisfied." 

Whereas  the  interests  of  the  newly  unem- 
ployed migrants  conflicted  with  those  of  the 
region's  boosters,  national  publications  like 
Fortune  magazine  could  afford  greater  empathy 
for  them.  Fortune  published  two  articles  in  its 
April  1939  issue  sympathetic  to  the  plight  of 
California's  new  migrants,  distinguishing  these 
"native  whites"  from  "foreigners:  Chinese,  Japs, 
Hindus,  Filipinos,  Mexicans"  who  had  previously 
constituted  the  labor  force.'^  Illustrated  with 
watercolors  by  Millard  Sheets  and  photographs 
by  Dorothea  Lange  and  fellow  documentary 
photographer  Horace  Bristol,  the  articles  empha- 
sized the  industriousness  of  the  migrants  and 
their  families. 


>ry  opens  In  Balboa  Park    It  later  becomes  the  San  Diego  Museum  of  Art.     >    Hollywood  Art  Center  School  is  founded      >    Modern  Art  Gallery  in  San  Francisco  Is  founded  as  California's  first  cooperative  art 


Millard  Sheets  Dorothea  Lange 

Migratory  Camp  near  Nipomo,  Migrant  Mother,  Nipomo, 

1936,  watercolor  on  paper  California,  1936,  printed 

later,  gelatin-silver  print 


Horace  Bristol 

Joad  Family  Applying  for 
Relief,  1938,  printed  1970, 
gelatin-silver  print 


Paul  Sample 

Celebration,  1933, 


Barse  Miller 

Migrant  America,  1939, 
canvas 


3ce.     >    George  Sterling,  famed  poet  and  resident  of  Carmel  arts  colony,  kills  himself  with  cyanide  in  San  Francisco's  Bohemian  Club.     >     1927     >     r/?e  Jazz  J/nger,  starring  flIJolson, 


Charles  Reiffel  Paul  Landacre 

Late  Afternoon  Glow,  c.  1925,  Desert  Wall,  1931,  wood 

oil  on  canvas  engraving 


Kirby  Kean 

Night  Scene  near  Victorville, 
c.  1937,  gelQtin-silver  print 


Agnes  Pelton 

Sandstorm,  1932, 
canvas 


Imogen  Cunningham 

Aloe  Bud,  1930,  gelatin- 


Helen  Forbes 

Manley's  Beacon,  Death 
Valley,  c.  1930,  oil  on 
canvas 


Even  during  the  Depression  years,  pictur- 
esque images  of  the  California  landscape  contin- 
ued to  appear  widely  in  both  popular  culture  and 
the  fine  arts,  perpetuating  the  escapist  image  put 
forth  earlier  in  the  century.  Insofar  as  these 
visions  changed  after  1920,  a  principal  cause  v^^as 
the  massive  growth  of  the  automobile  industry 
and  car  culture.  By  the  1920s  many  vacationers 
and  new  residents  toured  California  by  car  rather 
than  by  train.  Among  the  effects  of  this  shift  was 
the  new  accessibility  of  desert  locales  such  as 
Death  Valley,  one  of  the  hottest  and  driest  places 
on  earth,  which  was  made  a  national  monument 
in  1933  and  became  a  tourist  destination.  Visual 
artists  were  among  those  who  now  flocked  to 
California  deserts.  While  few  works  of  art  actu- 
ally pictured  the  intrusion  of  cars  into  the  land- 
scape— Kirby  Kean's  Night  Scene  near  Victorville 
is  a  rare  exception — this  intrusion  did  give  rise  to 
a  plethora  of  new  imagery,  from  Charles  Reiffel's 
plein  air  vistas  filled  with  desert  flora  to  Agnes 
Pelton's  ethereal  abstracted  scenes. 


>r  Brothers.  It  is  Hollywood's  first  talking  movie,     >     San  Diego  Society  of  firts  and  Crafts  is  established.     >     19  28     >    St.  Francis  Dam,  considered  the  "safest  ever  built,"  breaks  less  than  two 


years  after  it  opened  and  a  few  hours  after  Wil 


Iholland  inspects  it.     >    Pacific  Electric  Railway  offers  a  Sunday  pass  on  its  Red  Cars,  "fl  Day  for  a  Dollar."    >    Academy  of  Modern  ftrt  e: 


Edward  Weston 

Twenty  Mule  Team  Canyon, 
Death  Valley,  1938,  gelatir 


Touring  Topics  magazine, 
December  1929,  cover 
pamting  by  Henrietta  Sho 
Lent  by  Victoria  Dailey 


Album  of  California  desert 
flower  postcards,  c.  1930s. 
Lent  by  USC,  Regional  History 
Center,  Department  of  Special 
Collections 


As  it  had  earlier  in  the  century,  the 
CaUfornia  landscape  served  as  a  point  of  intersec- 
tion between  boosterism  and  the  fine  arts  during 
these  years.  Desert  landscapes  frequently  appeared, 
for  example,  in  publications  of  the  Auto  Club, 
then  feverishly  promoting  desert  travel  in  Touring 
Topics  with  dramatically  titled  articles  such  as 
'"In  the  Beginning,  God  Created  Desolation' — 
Death  Valley.""  Edward  Weston,  cofounder  of 
Group  f/64  and  one  of  the  key  modernist  figures 
in  American  photography,  was  among  the 
favorites  of  the  Auto  Club.  In  addition  to  featuring 
his  desert  imagery  in  multiple  issues  of  Touring 
Topics,  the  club  published  a  handsome  book  of 
Weston's  photographs  called  Seeing  California 
with  Edward  Weston  (1939).  While  never  venturing 
beyond  a  rather  mild  modernism  in  the  paintings 
they  published,  Touring  Topics  and  other  booster 
publications  like  the  Standard  Oil  Bulletin  did 
feature  works  by  Henrietta  Shore,  Maynard  Dixon, 
and  other  painters.  Such  works  lent  an  air  of 


TOURING 
TOPICS 


■XI3 

5ErF\IBFI 


19  2  9     >    Approximately  30,000  Filipinos  are  working  in  California,  fl  mix  of  racial  fears  and  labor  struggles  provokes  four  anti-Filipino  riots  in  the  following  decade. 


1930     >    Art  Center 


Henrietta  Shore  Kaye  Shimojima 

Untitled  (Cypress  Trees,  Point  Edge  of  the  Pond,  c.  1928, 

Lobos),  c.  1930,  oil  on  canvas  gelatm-silver  print 


f 

Julius  Cindrich 

Evening,  Green  Bay,  c,  1925, 
gelatin-silver  bromide  print 


respectability  and  sophistication  to  the  region's 
booster  industries.'' 

While  paradisal  images  of  California's 
coastal  and  inland  locales  remained  popular 
among  tourist  industries  and  artists  alike,  there 
was  a  greater  stylistic  range  of  images  generated 
and  disseminated  during  this  period.  In  photog- 
raphy, figures  such  as  Julius  Cindrich  continued  to 
create  misty  Pictorialist  images  of  the  shoreline — 
welcomed  in  Touring  Topics  along  with  the  works 
of  Weston  and  Shore — while  Kentaro  Nakamura 
and  others  created  more  stylized,  abstracted  views. 
What  most  united  the  formally  disparate  body 
of  art  from  these  years  and  linked  it  to  earlier 
picturesque  scenes  was  a  pronounced  absence  of 
people,  despite  their  actual  presence  in  increasing 
numbers.  For  this  reason,  Phil  Dike's  scenes  of  a 
bustling  coasdine,  such  as  Surfer  and  California 
Holiday,  were  unusual  for  the  period. 


School  opens  in  Los  ftngeles;  it  later  moves  to  Pasadena.     >     19  3  1      >    Herbert  Hoover's  secretary  of  labor,  William  H,  Doak,  announces  his  plan  to  deport  illegal  immigrants.  Mexicans  living  in  Califr 


Anne  M.  Bremer 

Clayton  S.  Price 

The  Sentinels,  c.  1918,  oil  on 

Coastline,  c  1924,  oil  on 

canvas 

canvas 

ie  Southwest  are  hardest  hit  by  the  drive.     >     19  32     >    Los  flnqeles  hosts  the  10th  Olympic  Games.  Competition  takes  place  in  Exposition  Park's  Coliseum.     >     19  33     >    Hitler  assumes  power 


Phil  Dike 

Surfer,  c.  1931,  oil  on  canvas 


Kentaro  Nakamura 

Evening  Nave.  c.  1926, 
gelotin-silver  bromide  print 


Poster  designed  by  Mauric( 
Logon,  produced  by  the 
Southern  Pacific  Railroad, 
1923.  Lent  by  Steve  Turner 
Gallery,  Beverly  Hills 


SOUTHERN  PACIFIC 


Germany,  giving  rise  fo  the  emigration  of  European  intellectuals,  many  to  Southern  California.     >     Los  flngeles  County  charters  15  special  trains  to  send  more  than  12,000  Mexicans  on  relief  rolls  ba 


Christine  Fletcher 

Fog  from  the  Pacific  (No.  4), 
c.  1931,  gelatin-silver  print 


Motoring  thru  the  Yosemite,  Chiura  Obata 

written  by  H.  B.  MacGill,  1926.  New  Moon,  Eagle  Peak,  1927, 

Lent  by  The  Huntington  sumi  and  watercolor  on  pape 
Library,  San  Marino 


Ansel  Adams 

Monolith,  the  Face  of  Half 
Dome,  /osemite  National 
Park,  1927,  printed  1980, 
geiatin-silver  print 


Frank  Morley  Fletcher 

California  2.  Mt.  Shasta. 
c.  1930,  color  woodcut 


r    ^!'i)mmsmlm€^'siiJVi 


Artists  persisted  in  aestheticizing  the  land- 
scape, even  into  the  1930s.  Chiura  Obata — who 
produced  Hmpid  watercolors  of  Yosemite  in  the 
manner  of  traditional  Japanese  ink  painting 
(sumi-e)  before  being  deported  to  an  internment 
camp  in  the  early  1940s — expressed  the  belief 
that  "Nature  knows  no  Depression.""  Obata's 
perspective  approached  that  of  Weston,  who 
defended  himself  against  accusations  of  escapism 
during  the  Depression  with  the  contention  that 
"there  is  just  as  much  'social  significance  in  a 
rock'  as  in  a  'line  of  unemployed.'""  That  a 
sizable  number  of  California  artists  persisted 
in  generating  idyllic  landscapes  during  the 
Depression  years  owes  much  to  the  aesthetic  and 
political  leanings  of  these  individual  figures,  as 
well  as  to  the  ongoing  valorization  of  touristic 
perspectives  by  the  state's  booster  industries. 


>    President  Franklin  Delano  Roosevelt  announces  the  New  Deal,  a  sweeping  reform  program  to  assist  the  nation's  recovery  from  the  Great  Depression   The  Public  Works  of  Art  Project  employs  thousands 


:rea1e  murals,  a  program  with  special  resonance  in  California. 


The  Long 


larch  10  kills  120,  with  schools  suffering  the  worst  damage.  The  damage  leads  to  new  bui 


George  Hurrell 

Norma  Shearer,  1929, 


George  Hurrell 

Ramon  Navarro,  1930, 
gelatm-silver  print 


George  Hurrell 

Joar}  Crawford,  1932, 


Gilbert  Adrian 

Costume  for  Joan  Crawford, 
created  far  "Letty  Lyntan," 
MGM,  1932,  sill<  crepe  and 
sequins 


The  most  powerful  California  export  to 
rival  the  boosterist  Edenic  landscape  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  century  was  the  dazzling  image 
of  Hollywood,  which  emerged  with  the  rapid 
ascendance  of  the  film  industry  in  Southern 
California  in  the  1910s  and  1920s.  While  sharing 
certain  traits  with  the  pastoral  vision  of 
California — an  obsession  with  visual  beauty 
and  abundance,  and  an  aversion  to  signs  of 
labor  or  hardship — the  image  of  newly  born 
Hollywood  nevertheless  marked  a  clear  depar- 
ture. None  of  the  nostalgic  associations  with 
Old  California  that  had  appealed  primarily  to 
Anglo  Midwesterners  were  at  play;  rather, 
Hollywood  evoked  sophistication,  sensuality, 
modernity,  and,  above  all  else,  glamour. 

Not  only  did  this  new  image  reach  a 
wider  audience — upwardly  mobile  whites  of  dif- 
ferent ethnic  backgrounds  and  financial  means— 
but  it  was  also  promoted  by  a  thoroughly 
different  cadre  of  boosters  than  the  Protestant 
elite  who  had  monopolized  California's  image 
until  this  time.  In  large  part,  these  new  boosters 


s  outlining  special  requirements  for  public  buildings,     >     19  34     >    National  Industrial  Recovery  Act  guarantees  the  right  of  American  workers  to  organize  unions,  fl  wave  of  strikes  hits  the  v/aterfronts 


were  Jewish  immigrants  from  eastern  Europe, 
men  who  had  arrived  in  CaHfornia  by  way  of 
New  York  in  search  of  financial  opportunity,  and 
who  had  founded  the  Big  Eight  film  studios  that 
dominated  the  industry  by  the  mid-i920s/° 
As  Lary  May  has  noted,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
many  of  these  early  Hollywood  moguls,  includ- 
ing studio  founders  Samuel  Goldwyn,  Jesse 
Lasky,  and  Adolph  Zukor,  had  previously  worked 
in  the  garment  industry,  where  image-brokering 
was  also  central  to  business  success.^'  Once  in 
California,  they  fashioned  an  image  of  Hollywood 
that  sold  tremendously  well  to  American  and 
international  audiences  of  the  day  and  that 
continues  to  powerfully  influence  popular  per- 
ceptions of  the  state. 

The  Hollywood  motion  picture  industry 
was  already  launched  by  the  mid-i9ios,  with 
the  production  of  such  monumental  films  as 
D.  W.  Griffith's  The  Birth  of  a  Nation  (1915). 
Yet  it  was  not  until  after  the  advent  of  the  "talkie" 
in  the  late  1920s  that  it  truly  burgeoned  and  the 
Hollywood  star  system  was  born."  At  that  time, 
silent  film  star  Mary  Pickford,  known  for  her 
demure  and  understated  persona,  was  superseded 
as  the  quintessential  Hollywood  starlet  by  such 
sultry  figures  as  Jean  Harlow,  Marlene  Dietrich, 
and  Joan  Crawford,  each  a  carefully  crafted 
embodiment  of  the  Hollywood  "siren."  An  entire 
industry  developed  around  the  production  of 
these  stars — promoting  their  glamorous  and 
eternally  youthful  appearances  and  their 
opulent  lifestyles — and  it  lured  creative  talent 
to  Hollywood  from  across  the  United  States 
and  abroad. 

Nothing  shaped  or  conveyed  the  image  of 
Hollywood  more  effectively  than  celebrity  pho- 
tography. Among  the  top  industry  photographers 
of  the  period  were  Clarence  Sinclair  Bull  and 
George  Hurrell,  both  of  whom  had  aspired  ini- 
tially to  be  painters  before  pursuing  careers  in 


Hollywood.  Bull  was  Greta  Garbo's  exclusive 
photographer  throughout  the  1930s,  powerfully 
fueling  her  mystique  with  his  intense,  dramati- 
cally lit  portraits,  while  Hurrell  was  the  photog- 
rapher of  choice  for  Crawford  and  Norma 
Shearer.  Hurrell's  first  Hollywood  job  had  been 
to  transform  the  boyish  Ramon  Novarro  into  an 
emblem  of  virility,  and  the  photographer  was 
known  thereafter  for  his  ability  to  tastefully 
enhance  the  sexual  allure  of  his  sitters.  Similarly, 
in  his  initial  photo  session  with  Shearer  in  1929, 
he  was  charged  with  spicing  up  her  screen  image: 
"The  idea  was  to  get  her  looking  real  wicked 
and  siren-like,  which  wasn't  the  image  she  had  at 
the  time ...  I  suppose  nobody  thought  she  could 
get  away  with  it.""  Indeed,  stylized,  highly  the- 
atrical portraits  by  celebrity  photographers  trans- 
formed ordinary  people  into  stars.  Their  work 
defined  Hollywood  for  generations  of  viewers, 
encouraging  popular  perceptions  of  Southern 
California  as  home  to  the  most  beautiful  and 
alluring  people  in  the  world. 

Costume  designers  also  began  to  assume 
tremendous  importance  in  producing  the 
much-coveted  and  highly  cultivated  Hollywood 
look — conveying  glamour,  sensuality,  and  sophis- 
tication— from  the  mid-i920s  onward,  when 


of  the  Pacific  Coast.     >    On  July  5— "Bloody  Thursday"— ttiere  is  an  especially  violent  episode  in  the  San  Francisco  maritime  workers'  strike:  two  union  picketers  are  killed  by  police,  and  over  10rj  worl 


director  Cecil  B.  DeMille  began  importing  major 
figures  in  the  fashion  world  to  work  on  his  films. 
Adrian,  who  designed  for  DeMille  and  served  as 
head  of  fashion  at  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer  from 
the  early  1930s  through  1942,  powerfully  shaped 
the  look  through  his  elaborate  costumes.  The 
sleek  sequined  gown  he  created  for  Crawford  to 
wear  in  Letty  lynton  (1932),  for  example,  was 
designed  expressly  to  show  off  her  famous 
shoulders.  In  response  to  being  dubbed  "The 
Most  Copied  Girl  in  the  World"  in  1937  by  Motion 
Pictures  Magazine,  Crawford  herself  attributed 
her  remarkable  popularity  to  Adrian's  flattering 
costumes.  Travis  Banton,  head  of  fashion  at 
Paramount  Pictures  during  the  1930s,  designed 
softer,  more  lushly  elegant  gowns  for  Marlene 
Dietrich,  in  contrast  to  the  graphic,  dramatic 
quality  of  Adrian's  designs  for  Crawford.  Lavish 
creations  such  as  these  embodied  the  qualities  of 
opulence  and  excess  intrinsic  to  the  carefully 
crafted  image  of  Hollywood  glamour. 

During  these  years,  critiques  of  Hollywood 
came  almost  exclusively  from  writers,  rather 
than  from  visual  artists,  perhaps  because  of  the 
latter's  greater  dependence  on  patrons.  Before  the 
advent  of  film  noir  in  the  1940s,  its  counterpart 
in  1930s  literature — exemplified  by  the  novels  of 
James  M.  Cain,  Raymond  Chandler,  and  Dashiell 
Hammett — counted  among  its  central  themes 
the  seamy  underside  of  the  Hollywood  dream. 
One  artist  who  offered  a  satirical  perspective  on 
Hollywood,  if  not  a  full-blown  critique  of  it,  was 
Will  Connell.  A  successful  fine-art  photographer 
who  also  did  commercial  work  for  Hollywood 
and  local  booster  organizations,  Connell  pro- 
duced a  witty  expose  entitled  In  Pictures  (c.  1937), 
which  dismantled  the  flawless  fa9ade  the 
Hollywood  industry  sold  to  the  public.  His 
photograph  Make-Up,  for  example,  spoke 
directly  to  the  mass  marketing  of  such  beauty 
aids  as  Max  Factor's  "Cinema  Sable"  lip  brush. 


Dllce  are  wounded.     >    Writer  Upton  Sinclair  runs  for  governor  on  tiis  End  Poverty  in  California  (EPIC)  platform.  Building  on  the  state's  history  of  barter  and  cooperative  movements,  Sinclair  easily  wins  the 


Travis  Banton 

Costume  for  Marlene  Dietrich 
created  for  "Desire," 
Paramount,  1935,  sill<  chiffon, 
silk  crepe,  and  fox  fur 


Gilbert  Adrian 

Costume  for  Greta  Garbo 
created  for  "lnspiratior\" 
MGM,  1930,  silk  crepe,  paste 
stones,  and  rhmestones 


Will  Connell 

Make-Up,  from  the  publn 
tion/n  Pictures,  c,  1937, 
gelatin-silver  print 


Ernest  Bachrach 

Dolores  Del  Rio.  1932, 
gelatin-silver  print 


which  promised  women  the  abihty  to  "draw 
'real'  cinema  lips . . .  with  all  the  deftness  of  a 
Hollywood  make-up  man,  so  [they] . . .  appear  as 
perfect  and  beautiful  as  those  you  see  on  the 
screen.""  It  is  not  surprising  that  Connell's  book, 
created  during  the  Depression,  never  became 
widely  popular.  Among  American  audiences, 
there  was  no  real  market  for  such  visual  satires 
of  Hollywood  in  the  1930s. 

In  fact  it  was  during  this  period,  arguably 
the  bleakest  in  the  nation's  history,  that  the 
Hollywood  glamour  image  reached  its  apex. 
Films,  celebrity  magazines  such  as  Photoplay, 
and  other  forms  of  mass  media  disseminated  the 
notion  of  fantasy  lifestyles  to  millions  of  finan- 
cially and  emotionally  downtrodden  viewers 
from  widely  diverse  walks  of  life.  Yet  despite  the 
considerable  scope  of  its  appeal,  the  larger-than- 
life  image  of  the  movie  star  that  Hollywood 
cultivated  during  these  years  proved  to  be  a 
constricted  and  contricting  one,  particularly  in 
terms  of  ethnic  identity. 


primary  but  loses  the  governorship  to  Republican  Franl<  Merriam.     >    Tydings-McDuffie  Act  limits  Filipino  immigration  to  50  people  per  year  for  the  entire  United  States,  Significant  immigration  does  not  resi 


Roberto  Montenegro 

Margo,  1937,  oil  on  cqt 


C.  S.  Bull 

Anna  May  Mong,  1927, 
gelatin-silver  print 


Adele  Elizabeth  Balkan 

Sketch  for  Costume  for 
Anna  May  Mong,  created  for 
"Daughter  of  the  Dragon," 
Paramount,  1936,  gouache 
on  board 


Stanton  MacDonald-Wright  Bernard  von  Eichman 

Canon  Synchromy  (Orange),  China  Street  Scene  No- 1 , 

c.  1920,  oil  on  canvas  1923,  oil  on  cardboard 


Gladding  McBean  Pottery 

Sncanto  Chinese  Red  Vase, 
c.  1930,  ceramic 


While  Hollywood  fostered  a  controlled 
exoticism  in  the  promotion  of  such  stars  as 
Anna  May  Wong  and  Dolores  Del  Rio,  nonwhite 
actors  who  could  not  be  made  to  fit  ethnic 
stereotypes  found  less  favor.  The  Mexican  actress 
Margot  Albert,  known  as  Margo,  was  repeatedly 
passed  over  by  Hollywood  casting  directors 
because  she  did  not  have  the  pale  skin  of  a 
"Spanish  seductress.""  Nor  did  she  conform  to 
the  accepted  Anglo  image  of  the  Hollywood 
starlet.  Mexican  artist  Roberto  Montenegro 
makes  this  point  in  his  portrait  Margo, 
identifiable  as  a  Hollywood  portrait  only  by  the 
inclusion  of  the  word  Hollywood  in  the  lower 
right.  His  subject's  heavy  robe  and  brooch,  her 
vacant  expression,  and  her  formal,  somewhat 
stiff  pose  in  three-quarter  view  liken  her  more 
to  a  Renaissance  sitter  than  to  a  modern-day 
film  icon. 

Latin  American  actresses  such  as  Margo 
were  generally  given  caricatural  parts  rather 
than  glamour  roles.  As  she  commented,  "Most 
of  the  time,  we  were  viewed  by  the  producers  as 
'local  color.'""  This  attitude  was  even  more 
common  in  the  casting  of  African  Americans, 
who  were  portrayed  in  strictly  stereotypical 
terms  in  pre-World  War  II  Hollywood  films 
such  as  The  Birth  of  a  Nation.  Posters  and  lobby 
cards  for  these  films  served  to  further  reinforce 
what  often  proved  to  be  racist  constructions 
of  black  identity." 


>    The  Public  Works  of  Art  Project  sponsors  27  murals  in  San  Franc 


Colt  Tower.  Several  are  suspected  of  depicting  Communist  themes,  and  the  tower  is  temporarily  closed. 


Despite  the  stereotypically  white 
Hollywood  image,  a  key  aspect  of  California's 
character  in  the  popular  consciousness  continued 
to  revolve  around  ethnic  identity,  with  the  keen- 
est focus  on  Latin  American  and  Asian  cultures. 
The  period  of  the  1920s  and  1930s  witnessed 
both  shifts  and  continuities  in  how  and  by  whom 
nonwhite  ethnic  identity  was  defined.  Anglo 
boosterist  conceptions  remained  pervasive;  there 
was  an  even  greater  interest  than  previously  in 
Latin  American  and  Asian  aesthetics  and  pictur- 
esque or  exotic  subjects,  fueled  by  United  States 
Pan-Americanism  and  economic  interests  in 
Pacific  Rim  countries.  In  the  fine  arts  this  pen- 
chant informed,  for  instance,  Mayan  Revival 
paintings,  furniture,  and  architecture  as  well  as 
the  Asian-inspired  works  of  Los  Angeles  painter 
Stanton  MacDonald-Wright. 


19  3  5     >    S^n  Francisco  Museum  of  Art  opens  its  doors.     >    Worlds  Progress  fldministration  begins,  providing  government-sponsored  employment  for  millions  during  the  Great  Depression.  Under  the  W 


Dorr  Bothwell 

Translation  from  the  Maya, 


Donal  Hord 

Mayan  Mask,  1933, 
polychromed  and  gilded 
mahogany 


Toyo  Miyatake 

Untitled,  1929,  gela 


Bilingual  brochure  for  the  J.T.  Sata 

Miyako  Hotel,  Los  Angeles,  Untitled  (Portrait),  1928, 

c.  1920s.  Lent  by  Jim  Heimann  gelatin -silver  print 


A  moderate  increase  in  openness  to  Latin 
American  and  Asian  voices  within  the  dominant 
culture  also  occurred,  coupled  by  a  strengthening 
and  diversification  of  Cahfornia's  nonwhite 
ethnic  subcultures.  These  subcultures  ranged 
fi-om  the  centrist  (for  example,  the  Japanese 
Camera  Pictorialists  of  California,  vs^ho  were 
based  in  Los  Angeles  and  included  such  members 
as  Kaye  Shimojima  and  J.  T.  Sata)  to  the  radical 
leftist  (including  the  artists  affiliated  with  the 
Communist  newspaper  Rodo  Shinbun  in  San 
Francisco).  Still,  only  the  most  benign  forms  of 
cultural  production  were  sanctioned  by  Anglo 
culture,  which  ignored  or  silenced  anything  that 
threatened  its  hegemony.  Moreover,  the  celebra- 
tion of  what  was  envisioned  as  "Asia"  and  "Latin 
America"  on  an  aesthetic  level  coincided  with 
ongoing  discriminatory  policies  and  practices 
toward  all  but  the  most  elite  members  of  these 
cultures.  Examples  include  the  aggressive  policing 


opment  of  the  Central  Valley  and  work  on  flood  control  and  navigation  are  undertaken.  California  leads  the  nation  in  WPfl-funded  public-art  projects,     >    Terrible  dust  storms  ravage  the  Midwest,  the  result 


of  Chinatowns  and  the  mass  deportation  of 
Mexicans,  many  of  whom  were  American  citizens, 
in  the  1930s.'* 

With  the  implementation  of  Franklin 
Delano  Roosevelt's  Good  Neighbor  policy,  there 
was  a  push  for  Pan-American  unity  nationwide 
during  the  1930s.  This  fact,  coupled  with  the 
increasingly  repressive  climate  in  Mexico  for 
artists  who  diverged  from  the  nationalist  pro- 
gram, compelled  a  number  of  highly  regarded 
Mexican  painters  to  cross  the  border  into 
California  in  the  early  1930s.  Among  them  were 
"Los  Tres  Grandes" — muralists  Diego  Rivera, 
David  Alfaro  Siqueiros,  and  Jose  Clemente 
Orozco — as  well  as  Alfredo  Ramos  Martinez, 
Frida  Kahlo,  and  Jean  Chariot.  To  the  extent  that 
their  visions  of  California  and  Mexico  coincided 
with  or  challenged  dominant  cultural  views, 
they  met  with  varying  responses. 

Rivera,  for  example,  who  had  been  expelled 
from  the  Communist  Party  in  1929,  came  to 
San  Francisco  the  following  year  to  do  a  painting 
for  the  Stock  Exchange  building — arguably  the 
epicenter  of  capitalism  in  California — at  the 
urging  of  prominent  businessman  and  collector 
Albert  Bender  and  U.S.  Ambassador  to  Mexico 
Dwight  Morrow.  Bitter  over  the  awarding  of  this 


of  overworked  fatmlanct  and  several  years  of  record-breaking  droughts.  The  harsh  conditions  set  off  a  huge  migration  of  farming  families  to  California.  This  has  enormous  social  effects  on  California,  as  des 


Frida  Kahio 

Frida  and  Diego  Riv 
oil  on  canvas 


Diego  Rivera 

1931,  Allegory  of  California,  study 

for  mural  m  San  Francisco 
Stock  Exchange  Building, 
1931,  graphite  on  paper 


important  commission  to  a  foreigner,  the  local 
community  of  artists  conjectured  that  Rivera 
would  "not  overlook  a  golden  chance  to  exercise 
his  communistic  visions.""  Yet  Allegory  of 
California,  also  known  as  Riches  of  California, 
celebrated  the  state's  agricultural  bounty  and 
industrial  fortitude  and  proved  quite  far  removed 
from  the  politically  radical  murals  he  had  exe- 
cuted in  Detroit  and  New  York.  Although  he  was 
to  characterize  California  four  years  later  as  "a 
rich  land  intimately  bound  up  with  the  remains 
of  its  earlier  Mexican  character,"'"  Allegory  of 
California  contains  no  evidence  of  these  remains. 
References  to  Mexican  identity  that  are  evident 
in  preliminary  sketches  for  the  mural,  such  as 
the  facial  features  of  the  central  allegorical  figure, 
are  absent  in  the  final  version  (see  p.  102). 
Among  the  most  heavily  patronized 
Mexican  artists,  especially  among  Hollywood's 
elite,  was  Ramos  Martinez,  formerly  the  head 
of  the  National  School  of  Fine  Arts  in  Mexico. 
Best  known  for  picturesque  images  of  Mexican 
women — depersonalized,  clad  in  old-fashioned 
costumes,  and  surrounded  by  fruit  and  flowers — 
he  executed  one  series  of  such  works  on 
Los  Angeles  Times  newsprint.  Although  perceived 
at  the  time  as  motivated  solely  by  aesthetic 
concerns,  Ramos  Martinez  appears  to  have  delib- 
erately chosen  the  background  visible  beneath 


Steinbeck's  novel  The  Grapes  ofWr^th     >     19  3  6     >    Los  flngeles  Police  Chief  James  Davis,  worried  about  the  homeless  transients  from  the  Oust  Bowl,  sets  up  a  "bum  blockade"  along  the  state' 


David  Alfaro  Siqueiros  Alfredo  Ramos  Martinez 

The  Warriors,  study  for  Womart  mth  fruit,  1933, 

Tropical  America  mural,  charcoal  and  tempera  on 

Los  Angeles,  c,  1932,  graphite  newsprint 
and  ink  on  paper 


David  Alfaro  Siqueiros 

Tropical  America,  mural 
photographed  on  its  comple 
tioninl932 


f 

Postcard  of  Olvero  Street, 

with  Los  Angeles  City  Hall 

visible  in  the  distance, 

c.  1930s,  Lent  byjim  Heiman 


PTZ^ 


fXo0  An 


mvcic^ 


'WORLD  I,EADER 


these  paintings.  He  repeatedly  depicted  primi- 
tivistic  images  of  Mexican  women  on  recent 
pages  from  the  Times  beauty  section,  thereby 
juxtaposing  two  culturally  distinct  notions  of 
female  attractiveness.  He  also  placed  Mexican 
field-workers  on  the  employment  pages,  under- 
scoring the  difficulties  faced  by  immigrant 
laborers.  The  critical  dimension  of  these  works, 
however,  went  unnoticed  by  American  patrons 
and  the  local  popular  press.  In  1932,  for  example, 
the  Times  cheerily  featured  one  such  newsprint 
image  of  "pure  native  types"  (Mexican  field 
laborers)  on  the  cover  of  its  Sunday  magazine, 
attributing  the  artist's  use  of  newsprint  solely  to 
the  fact  that  "he  likes  the  tone  and  texture  given 
by  the  'want  ad'  section."" 

Another  Mexican  emigre,  however,  overtly 
exceeded  the  limits  of  acceptability  in  represent- 
ing "Latin  America"  to  California  audiences. 
David  Alfaro  Siqueiros's  mural  Tropical  America 
defied  the  enduring,  hallowed  Mission  Myth 
and  offered  an  explicit  critique  of  Mexican  labor 
abuses  in  the  United  States.  Tropical  America 
was  commissioned  in  1932  to  adorn  a  building  on 
Los  Angeles's  Olvera  Street,  which  served  then, 
as  it  does  today,  as  both  a  lively  tourist  spot  and 
a  site  of  Mexican  commerce  and  community  life. 
Siqueiros  chose  not  to  reinforce  boosterist  stereo- 
types by  painting  "a  continent  of  happy  men, 
surrounded  by  palms  and  parrots.""  Rather,  his 
mural  shows  a  crucified  Indian  figure.  A  bald 


er  Jurisdiction  and  national  ridicule  for 


sse  his  efforts  after  six  weeks.     >    Twentieth  Century  Fox  releases  the  fourth  filr 


sion  (the  first  with  sound)  of  Ramond, 


eagle  proudly  perched  on  top  of  the  cross  lords 
over  the  contorted  nude  body  while  two  armed 
Indians  eye  the  eagle  surreptitiously,  evidently 
making  plans  to  shoot  it. 

Amazingly,  the  artistic  community  in 
Los  Angeles  initially  either  missed  or  ignored  the 
mural's  searing  political  content  and  focused 
instead  on  matters  of  aesthetics.  Even  the  politi- 
cally conservative  artist  Lorser  Feitelson  praised 
the  mural  for  its  "tenebrism,  illusionism,  and 
also  this  architectonic  quality;  it  had  guts  in  it!"" 
Yet  Siqueiros's  indictment  of  North  American 
imperialism  ultimately  did  gain  notice.  His 
request  to  renew  his  six- month  visa  was  denied, 
and  Tropical  America  (currently  being  restored 
by  the  Getty  Conservation  Institute)  was  white- 
washed (partially  in  1932,  then  entirely  in  1938). 

Amid  such  silencing  of  critical  perspectives 
on  United  States-Mexican  relations,  there  was  a 
"vogue  [for]  things  Mexican"  that  pervaded  many 
facets  of  cultural  production  in  California." 
"Things  Mexican"  ranged  from  artwork  by 
Maxine  Albro,  one  of  the  many  creative  figures 
who  traveled  to  Mexico  and  interacted  with 
Mexican  artists  in  California,  to  Bauer  Pottery's 
El  Chico  and  La  Linda  dishware  lines.  It  is  per- 
haps not  surprising  that  commercial  ceramists 
and  textile  designers  served  up  easily  digestible, 
stereotypical  images  of  Old  Mexico  to  modern 
consumers.  Yet  even  political  leftists  such  as 
Albro — for  example,  in  Fiesta  of  the  Flowers 
(1937)  >  painted  for  the  Biltmore  Hotel  in 
Montecito — promoted  romanticized,  primitivis- 
tic  conceptions.  Mexican  culture  was  seen  as 
simple,  exotic,  colorful,  spiritual,  preindustrial, 
and  feminine,  i.e.,  as  pointedly  antithetical  to 
contemporary  white  American  culture. 

Similarly,  dominant  cultural  perspectives 
on  Asian  identity  in  California  during  this  period 
proved  exoticizing  and  aestheticizing.  It  is  fruitful 
to  compare,  for  example,  two  works  that  depict 


Chinese  subjects:  Where  Is  My  Mother  by  Yun 
Gee,  and  Chinese  Mother  and  Child  by  Spanish- 
born  Jose  Moya  del  Pifio.  Gee,  head  of  the 
short-lived  Chinese  Revolutionary  Artists'  Club, 
offers  a  highly  personal  view.  A  male  figure, 
most  likely  the  artist,  stands  in  the  immediate 
foreground,  serving  as  an  intermediary  or  buffer 
between  two  other  Chinese  figures  and  the 
(presumably  white)  viewing  audience,  while  the 
boats  in  the  background  suggest  the  artist's  long- 
ing to  return  to  China  to  see  his  mother  again. 
This  sense  of  displacement  is  echoed  in  Gee's 
1926  poem  of  the  same  title,  in  which  he  mourns, 
"That  mother  of  mine,  how  it  tore  my  heart  / 


TRAVEL  t. 

MEXICO 


Jackson's  popular  novel  about  interracial  niarnage  and  the  conditions  of  mission  Indian  life  In  Southern  California      >     19  3  7     >    Los  flngeles  Negro  Art  Association  tiolds  its  first  exhibition      > 


Maxine  Albro 

fiesta  of  the  Flowers,  mural 
created  for  Biltmore  Hotel, 
Montecito,  1937,  oil  on  canvas 


Tourist  brochure  promoting 
rail  travel  to  Mexico,  c.  1939. 
Lent  by  the  California 
Historical  Society,  North 
Baker  Research  Library, 
Ephemera  Collection 


Elia  Sunderland  Toyo  Miyatake 

l^oman's  Two-Piece  Playsmt,  Untitled,  1930,  gelatii 

c.  1940,  printed  cotton  silver  print 


California  Hand  Prints 

Textile  Length,  c.  1941, 
printed  cotton 


^  '^ 

m :  V 1  «* 

1^^^^^^    '-'  J&H^l 

it} 

•IT 

Soldeo  fiate  Brii^ge  opens  in  San  Francisco  on  May  27:  200,000  people  walk  across  the  Bay.     >     1938     >    Governor  Merriam  dedicates  Los  flnqele 


•  Chinatown  at  Hill  and  North  Broadway.     >    Ten  thou 


yun  Gee  jose  Moya  del  Pino 

Where  Is  My  Mother,  1926-27,  Chinese  Mother  and  Child, 

oil  on  canvas  1933,  oil  on  canvas 


To  leave  her  across  the  sea,  /  I  who  was  part  of 
her —  /  She  became  all  of  me.""  In  contrast, 
in  Chinese  Mother  and  Child  del  Pino  objectifies 
and  aestheticizes  his  subjects,  placing  a  colorful 
potted  plant  in  front  of  the  mother  on  a  low 
wall,  thus  distancing  the  figures  from  the  viewer. 
For  del  Pino,  the  waterfront  behind  the  figures — 
where,  in  fact,  labor  unrest  was  mounting — 
merely  provides  a  pleasant,  visually  appealing 
backdrop. 

A  comparably  aestheticized,  depersonal- 
ized image  of  Chinese  Americans  was  offered  by 
Beniamino  Bufano,  whose  portraits  of  inhabi- 
tants of  San  Francisco's  Chinatown  reenvisioned 
them  in  decorative  terms,  as  if  they  were  ancient 
Chinese  statuary.  The  portrait  bust  entided 
Elizabeth  Gee  by  Bufano's  student  Sargent 
Johnson — one  of  the  first  African  American 
artists  in  California  to  gain  widespread  recogni- 
tion— offers  a  somewhat  more  individualized 
portrayal  of  a  Chinese  American  subject. 
Johnson  depicts  his  young  sitter,  who  was  his 
next-door  neighbor,  as  a  real  girl  with  a  first  and 
last  name  (and  a  strand  of  hair  out  of  place), 
rather  than  as  an  abstract  type.  Generally,  how- 
ever, images  by  non-Asians  who  purported  to 
honor  their  Asian  subjects  tended  to  be  exoticiz- 
ing,  in  line  with  the  long-standing  Western 
tradition  of  Orientalism." 

California's  aesthetic  and  economic  inter- 
est in  Asia  and  Latin  America  culminated  in 
the  Golden  Gate  International  Exposition,  held 
in  1939  and  1940  on  artificially  made  Treasure 
Island  in  the  San  Francisco  Bay.  The  exposition 
was  organized  to  celebrate  the  completion  of 
the  Golden  Gate  and  San  Francisco-Oakland 
Bay  bridges  and  to  lay  the  groundwork  for  a  new 
airport  (never  built,  because  Treasure  Island 
turned  out  to  be  too  small).  A  central  goal  of  its 
organizers,  business  leaders  of  the  Bay  Area, 
was  to  position  California — and  San  Francisco, 


its  per  month  arrive  in  California,  attracted  by  popular  myths  and  fruit-growers'  advertisements  promoting  the  state's  bounty.  Upon  arrival  they  fmd  that  jobs  are  scarce:  most  are  forced  to  squat  in  camps.     > 


Beniamino  B.  Bufano 

Sargent  Johnson 

Wing-KwongTse 

Postcard  showing  a  brass 

Chinese  Man  and  Woman, 

Elizabeth  Gee,  1925, 

Cup  of  Longevity,  c,  1930, 

band  at  the  opening  of 

1921,  stoneware,  glazed 

stoneware,  glazed 

watercolor  on  paper 

New  Chinatown,  Los  Angeles 
[incorrectly  dated  1935]. 
Lent  by  Jim  Heimann 

19  3  9     >    San  Francisco  hosts  the  Golden  Gate  International  Exposition  on  Treasure  Island,  the  largest  ever  held  west  of  Chicago 


Diego  Rivera  and  an 
assistant  at  work  on  Pan- 
American  Unity,  1939. 
Courtesy  of  City  College  of 
San  Francisco  Rivera  Archives 


Diego  Rivera 

Pan-American  Unity  (detail), 
1939,  mural,  City  College  of 
San  Francisco 


Brochure  for  the 
San  Francisco  World  Fair  of 
1940,  with  cover  illustratior 
showing  Ralph  Stackpole's 
Pacifica.  Lent  by  Jim  Heima 


in  particular — as  the  economic  and  cultural 
gateway  to  the  Pacific.  The  Court  of  the  Pacific, 
at  the  heart  of  the  fair,  was  devoted  to  the  pro- 
motion of  Pacific  Rim  unity,  with  painted  maps 
of  Pacific  cultures  by  Miguel  Covarrubias, 
stained-glass  windows  showing  the  four  Pacific 
Rim  continents,  and  dioramas  illustrating  the 
unification  of  the  region.  The  court's  piece  de 
resistance  was  Ralph  Stackpole's  imposing 
eighty-foot  statue  Pacifica,  a  pan-ethnic  West 
Coast  counterpart  to  the  Statue  of  Liberty. 

To  foster  amicable  relations  with  Latin 
America,  as  part  of  the  Pacific  Basin,  Diego 
Rivera  was  invited  back  to  California  to  paint  a 
mural  entitled  Pan-American  Unity  heiore 


crowds  of  visitors  in  an  abandoned  airplane 
hangar  on  Treasure  Island.  The  well-seasoned 
Rivera  was  undoubtedly  a  willing  participant  in 
this  performance  of  sorts,  and  certainly  many 
artists  painted  on  display  throughout  the  United 
States  during  this  period.  Yet  Rivera  appears  to 
have  been  ambivalent  about  the  task  of  celebrat- 
ing Pan-Americanism.  The  ten-panel  mural,  as 
Anthony  Lee  has  noted,  is  replete  with  disjunc- 
tive imagery  and  subtle  ironies  about  the  power 
imbalance  inherent  in  cross-cultural  exchanges 


'i^             SAN  FRANCISCO 

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1' 

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■  1  P-i 

kir 

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iLibfM 

AL  EXPOSITION 

between  California  and  Mexico.  In  one  of  the 
lower  panels,  for  example,  Rivera  depicts  native 
peoples  laboriously  fashioning  trinkets  and 
souvenirs  of  the  sort  sold  at  expositions.  An 
anthropomorphized  tree,  to  which  one  figure 
has  attached  her  loom,  is  being  strangled  in  the 
process.  In  the  background  is  an  image  of  the 
artist  himself  painting  a  mural  honoring  North 
American  heroes,  who  appear  rather  stiff  and 
unfeeling  above  the  strangled  tree.  Rivera  thus 
comments  on  the  United  States's  exploitation  of 
Mexico  and  its  people,  including  himself,  in  the 
name  of  fostering  cultural  exchange.  The  imagery 
in  these  passages,  although  possible  to  miss  in 
this  densely  composed  mural,  undermined  the 
booster  message  Rivera  was  enlisted  to  convey." 
Rivera's  Pan-American  Unity  mural  asserts 
in  a  quiet  way  the  limited  and  tenuous  nature 
of  California's  "cultural  openness"  toward  its  geo- 
graphical neighbors  during  the  1920s  and  1930s." 
In  the  following  war-torn  decade,  latent  racist  atti- 
tudes were  espoused  widely  and  openly.  Indeed, 
the  Navy's  destruction  of  the  Pacifica  statue  during 
World  War  II,  when  more  than  100,000  people 
of  Japanese  descent  were  interned  in  the  western 
United  States,  confirmed  the  official  sanctioning 
of  xenophobia  that  took  place  in  the  1940s.  A 
resurgence  of  the  conservative  mainstream — 
mirrored  in  the  country  at  large — occurred  during 
the  war  years,  followed  by  an  effort  to  suppress 
the  multiplicity  of  voices  that  had  surfaced  in  the 
volatile  and  complex  decades  between  the  two 
world  wars. 


1  William  H.  Lcuclitcnbcrg,  The  Perils  of 
Prosperity,  1914-32  (Ciiicago:  University  of 
Chicago  Press,  1958),  1979. 

2  Quoted  in  William  Dcvercll,  introduction 
to  "Los  Angeles  and  the  Mexican  or  What's 
Typical  in  Los  Angeles  History?"  (paper  deliv- 
ered during  the  1996-97  series  Perspectives 
on  Los  Angeles:  Narratives,  Images,  History, 
at  the  Getty  Research  Institute,  Los  Angeles, 
Feb.  1997),  27-28;  see  also  Deverell, 
Whitewashed  Adobe:  Los  Angeles  and  the 
Remaking  of  the  Mexican  Landscape  (Berkeley 
and  Los  Angeles:  University  of  California 
Press,  forthcoming).  Deverell  cites  realtor 
reports  from  the  Race  Relations  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  collection.  Hoover  Institution  Archives, 
Hoover  Institution  on  War,  Revolution,  and 
Peace,  Stanford  University. 

3  Tom  Zimmerman,  "Paradise  Promoted: 
Boosterism  and  the  Los  Angeles  Chamber 
of  Commerce,"  California  History  64  (winter 
1985):  31. 

4  For  further  discussion  of  the  leftist  com- 
munity of  artists  in  San  Francisco,  particularly 
in  relation  to  the  presence  of  Diego  Rivera  in 
1930,  see  Anthony  W.  Lee,  Painting  on  the  Left: 
Diego  Rivera,  Radical  Politics,  and  San 
Francisco's  Public  Murals  (Berkeley  and  Los 
Angeles:  University  of  California  Press,  1999). 

5  Panel  26  of  Refregier's  mural — a  chrono- 
logical history  of  San  Francisco  commis- 
sioned by  the  federal  government  in  1940  and 
completed  in  1946 — portrayed  the  strike  of 
1934.  The  panel  was  criticized  by  the  Veterans 
of  Foreign  Wars  (vfw)  for  its  depiction  of 
suspected  Communist  Harry  Bridges  point- 
ing a  finger  at  the  corruption  of  hiring  bosses 
in  the  industry.  After  minor  changes  that  did 
not  appease  the  vfw,  the  House  Committee 
on  Public  Works  debated  the  murals'  destruc- 
tion in  1953  but  ultimately  decided  to  leave 
them  standing.  See  Gray  Brechin,  "Politics 
and  Modernism:  The  Trial  of  the  Rincon 
Annex  Murals,"  in  On  the  Edge  of  America: 
California  Modernist  Art,  1900-1950,  ed.  Paul 
Karlstrom  (Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles: 
University  of  California  Press,  1996),  68-93. 

i  Lee,  Painting  on  the  Left,  131-36. 

7  "Murals  on  Coit  Shaft  Hint  Plot  for  Red 
Cause,"  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  July  3, 1934. 
See  also  San  Francisco  Examiner,  July  5  and 
July  9, 1934.  For  a  more  lengthy  analysis  of 
the  tower's  reception,  with  special  attention 
to  the  Zakheim  mural,  see  Lee,  Painting  on 
the  Left,  143-59.  For  a  history  and  iconogra- 
phy of  the  twenty-seven  murals,  see  Masha 
Zakheim  Jewett,  Coit  Tower,  San  Francisco: 
Its  History  and  Art  (San  Francisco:  Volcano 
Press,  1983). 

8  Carey  McWilliams,  Factories  in  the  Field 
(Boston:  Little,  Brown  and  Company,  1939), 
146. 

9  See  Lee,  Painting  on  the  Left,  78. 

10  Patricia  Junker,  "Celebrating  Possibilities 
and  Controlling  Limits:  Painting  of  the  1930s 
and  1940s,"  in  Steven  A.  Nash  et  al..  Facing 
Eden:  100  Years  of  Landscape  Art  in  the  Bay 
Area,  exh.  cat.  (San  Francisco:  Fine  Arts 
Museums  of  San  Francisco,  in  association 
with  University  of  California  Press,  Berkeley 
and  Los  Angeles,  1995). 

11  Kevin  Starr,  Endangered  Dreams:  The  Great 
Depression  in  California  (New  York:  Oxford 
University  Press,  1996),  64-65. 


12  Their  Blood  Is  Strong:  A  Tactual  Story  of 
the  Migratory  Agricultural  Workers  in 
California  (San  Francisco:  Simon  J.  Lubin 
Society  of  California,  1938),  26-27. 

13  Between  1929  and  1934,  400,000  Mexicans 
were  "repatriated"  by  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment in  order  to  reduce  welfare  payments 
during  the  Depression.  See  Chon  Noriega, 
"Citizen  Chicano:  The  Trials  and  Titillations 
of  Ethnicity  in  the  American  Cinema, 
1935-1962,"  Social  Research  58,  no.  2  (summer 
1991):  415. 

14  Official  Tourist  Guide  (Los  Angeles: 
All-Year  Club,  1935),  quoted  in  Zimmerman, 
"Paradise  Promoted,"  33. 

15  "Along  the  Road:  Extracts  from  a 
Reporter's  Notebook,"  Fortune,  April  1939,  96. 

16  Touring  Topics,  June  1922. 

17  See  John  Ott,  "Landscapes  of 
Consumption:  Auto  Tourism  and  Visual 
Culture  in  California,  1920-1940,"  in  Reading 
California:  Art,  Image,  and  Identity,  1900-2000 
( Los  Angeles:  Los  Angeles  County  Museum 
of  Art,  in  association  with  University  of 
California  Press,  Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles, 
2000). 

18  Obata  made  this  statement  to  a  critic  in 
1931.  Quoted  in  Nash  et  al.,  Facing  Eden,  71. 

19  Quoted  in  James  Enyeart,  Edward  Weston's 
California  Landscapes  {Boston:  Little,  Brown 
and  Company,  1984),  11.  Weston  is  quoting 
phrases  that  Adams  had  used  previously. 

20  See  Neal  Gabler,  An  Empire  of  Their  Own: 
How  the  Jews  Invented  Hollywood  (New  York: 
Crown  Publishers,  1988). 

21  Lary  May,  Screening  Out  the  Past:  The 
Birth  of  Mass  Culture  and  the  Motion  Picture 
Industry  (Oxford:  Oxford  University  Press, 
1980),  170-71. 

22  In  fact,  capital  investment  in  the  film 
industry  doubled  between  1926  and  1933. 
See  Carey  McWilliams,  Southern  California: 
An  Island  on  the  Land  (1946;  reprint.  Salt  Lake 
City:  Peregrine  Smith,  1990),  347. 

23  Quoted  in  John  Kobal,  The  Art  of  the  Great 
Hollywood  Portrait  Photographers,  1925-1940 
(New  York:  Harrison  House,  1987),  97. 

24  Quoted  in  Michael  Regan,  Hollywood 
Film  Costume,  exh.  cat.  (Manchester: 
Whitworth  Art  Gallery,  University  of 
Manchester,  1977),  17. 

25  George  Hadley-Garcia,  Hispanic 
Hollywood:  The  Latins  in  Motion  Pictures 
(New  York:  Carol  Publishing  Group,  1990),  15. 

26  Ibid. 

27  See  Gary  Null,  Black  Hollywood:  From 
1970  to  Today  (New  York:  Carol  Publishing 
Group,  1993),  11-16. 

28  Other  evidence  of  discrimination  can  be 
found  in  the  burning  of  a  Mexican  neighbor- 
hood in  Los  Angeles,  without  compensation 
to  its  residents,  in  an  effort  to  eradicate  the 
bubonic  plague.  A  precedent  for  this  had 
been  set  in  1907  with  the  destruction  of  many 
homes  in  San  Francisco's  Chinatown  after  a 
plague  outbreak.  See  Mike  Davis,  Ecology  of 
Fear:  Los  Angeles  and  the  Imagination  of 
Disaster  (New  York:  Henry  Holt  and 
Company,  1998),  252-60. 

29  "Artists  Fight  on  Employing  Mexican 
'Red,'"  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  September  24, 
1930. 

30  Diego  Rivera,  Portrait  of  America 
(New  York:  Covici,  Friede,  1934),  12. 


31  Los  Angeles  Tunes  Sunday  Magazine, 
August  21, 1932.  Quotation  appeared  in  an 
accompanying  insert,  "The  Artist  Who  Drew 
This  Week's  Cover,"  by  major  Los  Angeles  art 
critic  Arthur  Millier,  18. 

32  David  Alfaro  Siqueiros,  La  historia  de  una 
insidia.  Quiines  son  las  triadores  a  la  patria? 
Mi  Respuesta  (Mexico  City:  Ediciones  de 
'Arte  Piiblico,'  i960),  32,  quoted  in  Shifra  M. 
(ioldman,  "Siqueiros  in  Los  Angeles,"  in 

Los  murales  de  Siqueiros,  ed.  Raquel  Tibol 
(Mexico  City:  Americo  Arte  Editores,  S.A.  de 
C.V.  and  Conaculta,  Instituto  Nacional  de 
Bellas  Artes,  1998). 

33  From  Shifra  Goldman's  interview  with 
Feitelson,  "Siqueiros  in  Los  Angeles" 
(July  1973),  quoted  in  Shifra  M.  Goldman, 
"Siqueiros  and  Three  Early  Murals  in 

Los  Angeles,"  Art  Journal  a,  no.  4  (summer 
1974):  325. 

34  See  Helen  Delpar,  The  Enormous  Vogue  of 
Things  Mexican:  Cultural  Relations  between 
the  United  States  and  Mexico,  1920-1935 
(Tuscaloosa:  The  University  of  Alabama 
Press,  1992). 

35  Letter  dated  May  31, 1926.  Collection  of 
Yun  Gee's  daughter,  Li-Ian. 

36  For  the  key  text  that  initiated  a  discourse 
on  Orientalism,  see  Edward  Said,  Orientalism 
(New  York:  Pantheon  Books,  1978). 

37  For  further  analysis  of  the  iconography 
and  intent  of  Pan-American  Unity,  see  Lee, 
Painting  on  the  Left,  211-12. 

38  For  further  discussion  of  the  motivations 
behind  the  Good  Neighbor  policy  and  its 
limitations  in  fostering  understanding 
between  people  of  the  United  States  and 
Mexico,  see  Holly  Barnet-Sanchez,  "The 
Necessity  of  Pre-Columbian  Art  in  the 
United  States:  Appropriations  and 
Transformations  of  Heritage,  1933-1945," 

in  Collecting  the  Pre-Columbian  Past:  A 
Symposium  at  Dumbarton  Oaks,  6th  and 
/th  October  1990,  ed.  Elizabeth  Hill  Boon 
(Washington,  D.C.:  Dumbarton  Oaks 
Research  Library  and  Collection,  1993), 
177-207. 


^i>»^ 


m  I 


Copr.,  1944,  by  Cole  of  California,  Inc.,  Los  Anseles  1 


THE  CALIFORNIA  HOME  FRONT    1940-1960 


Sheri  Bernstein 


Magazine  advertisement 
for  Cole  of  California's 
Swoon-Glo  swimwear,  1945. 
Illustration  by  Ren  Wicks 


Page  from  the  model  home 
brochure  Lakewood: 
The  Future  City  as  New  as 
Tomorrow,  1940s.  Lent  by 


In  the  years  between  America's  entry  into  World  War  II  in  1941  and  the 
election  of  President  John  F.  Kennedy  in  1960,  California's  image  in  the 
notional  psyche  was  shaped  by  a  pervasive  wartime  mentality.  When  the 

battle  against  fascism  ended,  the  Cold  War 
against  Communism  replaced  it.  Even  in  the 
prosperous  postwar  years,  defined  by  optimism 
in  so  many  respects,  the  specter  of  a  foreign 
threat,  of  impending  disorder  and  catastrophe, 
remained  ever  present.  And  California,  which 
during  World  War  II  was  touted  as  the  invulner- 
able gateway  to  the  Pacific  Theater,  became  a 
symbol  of  the  good  life  in  the  postwar  period, 
a  haven  for  safe,  comfortable,  and  affordable 
living  in  sunny  surroundings.  Although  the 
golden  image  of  California  as  a  domesticated 
Eden  was  challenged  by  some  who  found  it 
constricting,  and  rejected  by  others  whom  it 
excluded  by  virtue  of  ethnicity  or  class,  this 
boosterist  vision  unquestionably  held  sway  for 
nearly  two  decades.  Indeed,  the  state's  image  as 
a  bastion  of  homogeneous,  white  middle-class 
suburbia — despite  the  increase  in  its  actual 
diversity  due  to  wartime  and  postwar  migra- 
tion— answered  a  deep-seated  need  among 
Americans  for  consensus  and  security. 


own  a  humi;  in  Lakewoo 

low  monthly  payments  help  to 

build  up  savings  for  tt 


With  America's  entry  into  World  War  II, 
California  emerged  at  the  forefront  of  wartime 
production  and  reaped  major  economic  benefits. 
The  Hollywood  industry,  for  one,  became  inti- 
mately involved  in  the  war  effort,  generating 
scores  of  propagandistic  and  jingoistic  films. 
Other  major  California  industries,  bolstered  by 
hefty  federal  funds,  also  significantly  expanded 
their  operations  in  response  to  wartime  needs. 
In  Los  Angeles  three  major  aircraft  companies — 
Lockheed,  Douglas,  and  Vultee — employed 
thousands  of  men  and  women,  including  many 
recent  arrivals  to  the  region.  Shipbuilding  bur- 
geoned as  well  in  both  Northern  and  Southern 
California,  attracting  tens  of  thousands  of  African 
Americans,  mostly  from  the  southern  states. 
(While  blacks  had  been  leaving  the  South  steadily 
since  the  turn  of  the  century,  it  was  not  until  this 
period  that  they  came  to  California  in  sizable 
numbers.)  By  1944  African  Americans  comprised 
15  percent  of  the  9,000-person  workforce 
employed  by  Los  Angeles's  shipbuilding  compa- 
nies (predominantly  by  the  "Big  Three"  located 
on  Terminal  Island:  the  California  Shipbuilding 
Company  [Calship],  Consolidated  Steel,  and 
Western  Pipe  and  Steel  Company).' 

Agriculture  was  another  key  aspect  of 
California's  wartime  production,  with  the  state 
supplying  food  to  Americans  at  home  and  on  the 
battlefront.  In  order  to  meet  the  nation's  amplified 
food  needs — in  the  midst  of  a  labor  shortage 
brought  on  by  the  draft  and  the  relocation  of  the 
Japanese — the  U.S.  government  instituted  the 
Bracero  program  in  1942,  which  called  for  the 
temporary  importation  of  Mexican  workers 
into  California  to  harvest  crops.  The  federally 
sanctioned  policy  of  bringing  in  braceros  (strong- 
armed  ones)  according  to  the  needs  of  agribusi- 
ness continued  through  1964.^  Although  braceros 
were  denied  the  rights  of  American  citizens  and 
received  neither  decent  wages  nor  the  union 


1  94  0     >    Richard  and  Maurice  McDonald  open  d  hamburcier  drive-in  In  San  Bernardino  with  no  carhops  and  no  options  on  the  prewrapped  burgers,     >    The  Arroyo  Seco  Parkway  opens,  connecting  Pas 


^*- 


ABSENTEEISM 


benefits  they  had  been  promised,  many  publicly 
expressed  feelings  of  pride  in  their  contribution  to 
the  war  effort. 

Yet  California  was  principally  known 
during  these  years  as  a  producer  of  instruments 
of  war,  not  as  a  provider  of  crops.  Indeed,  the 
booster  image  of  the  state  at  this  time  became 
that  of  a  highly  productive  war  machine.  Images 
of  seemingly  endless  rows  of  perfectly  crafted 
warheads  replaced  those  of  golden  oranges, 
which  had  so  forcefully  shaped  popular  percep- 
tions of  the  state  earlier  in  the  century.  What 
linked  this  wartime  view  of  California  to  previ- 
ous boosterist  visions,  including  the  Hollywood 
glamour  image  of  the  1920s  and  1930s,  was  the 
concept  of  limitless  bounty.  California  continued 
to  stand  for  abundance  and  plenty  in  the  war 
years,  albeit  an  abundance  of  tools  of  combat, 
rather  than  of  Hollywood  beauties  or  fruits  of 
the  land. 


town  Los  flngeles.  It  is  ttie  first  freeway  in  tlie  American  West.     >     194  1      >    Japanese  pilots  bomb  Pearl  Harbor,  and  the  United  States  enters  World  War  II.  In  California  millions  of  jobs  irt  created  in  the 


Photograph  documenting  the 
record-setting  construction 
oftheS.S.yohnf/tch, 
Richmond,  California,  1942, 
Lent  by  Mrs.  Edmund  L  Dubois 


Pacific  Factory  magazine, 
April  1943.  Lent  by 
San  Francisco  State 
University,  Labor  Archives 
and  Research  Center 


"Douglas  Defends  the 
Democracies,"  magazme 
advertisement,  1942.  Lent  by 
Jim  Heimonn 


Dorothea  Lange 

Untitled  [End  of  Shift,  5., 
Richmond,  California, 
September  1942],  1942, 
gelatm-silver  print 


Me  Also  Serve  magazine, 
1944.  Lent  by  San  Francisco 
State  University,  Labor 
Archives  and  Research  Center 


A'ht)  S^^ 


airline  and  shipbuilding  industries.     >    Santa  Barbara  Museum  of  Art  opens.     >     1942     >    The  Bracero  program  Is  Initiated  by  the  U.S.  government  to  import  cheap  labor  from  Mexico  into  Californi. 


ART    FOR    VKTORV 


■r^^^ 


ctlon  needs.  The  program's  promises  of  good  pay  and  union  benefits  were  not  fulfilled,  flittiough  the  war  ends  in  1945,  the  Bracero  program  continues  until  well  into  the  1960s.     >    Under  Executive  Order  9066, 


Charles  and  Ray  Eames 

Leg  Splints,  c.  1943,  molded 
plywood 


Art  for  Victory,  brochure 
for  on  exhibition  at  the 
Pasadena  Art  Institute, 
Lent  by  the  Southwest 
Museum,  Los  Angeles 


California  Arts  and 
Architecture  magazme,  May 
1943,  cover  design  by  Roy 
fames.  Lent  anonymously 


Richard  Neutro 

Channel  Heights  Chair, 
1940-42,  wood,  metal,  and 
plastic 


Numerous  institutions  and  individuals 
in  the  arts  community  supported  California's 
booster  image  as  a  mainstay  of  the  war  effort. 
While  museums  and  galleries  generally  showed 
their  patriotism  through  the  traditional  avenue 
of  exhibitions — the  Pasadena  Art  Institute, 
for  example,  organized  Art  for  Victory  in  1944 — 
it  was  designers  and  architects  with  practical 
skills  who  became  most  directly  involved  in 
war  production.  Cole  of  California,  for  instance 
took  up  parachute  manufacturing  while 
continuing  to  produce  women's  apparel.  Their 
popular  Swoon  Suit  (see  p.  146) — a  lace-up 
two-piece  bathing  suit  available  in  "parachute 


colors" — conformed  to  strict  wartime  restric- 
tions on  the  use  of  rubber  for  elastic'  To  high- 
light its  wartime  contributions.  Cole  published 
numerous  advertisements,  including  one 
showing  a  woman  in  a  Swoon  Suit  beside  a 
paratrooper.  The  proud  caption  read,  "They 
Wear  the  Same  Label."" 

Two  of  the  most  important  California 
designers  to  employ  their  skills  in  the  service  of 
the  war  were  Charles  and  Ray  Eames.  The 
Los  Angeles-based  couple  devised  and  manu- 
factured molded  plywood  leg  splints  as  well  as 
nose  cones  and  other  aircraft  parts  for  local 
aviation  companies  and  the  federal  government. 
Similarly,  California  architects  William  Wurster 
and  Richard  Neutra  turned  their  skills  to  design- 
ing cost-efficient  housing  and  furniture  for  war 
workers.  Neutra's  Channel  Heights  Chair,  created 
from  inexpensive  everyday  materials  and  usable 
both  indoors  and  out,  was  a  component  of  his 
acclaimed  Channel  Heights  project  of  the  early 
1940s,  a  public  housing  tract  intended  for  ship- 
yard laborers  in  Los  Angeles.  The  same  principles 
of  economy  and  fluidity  of  function  that  had 
been  developed  during  the  war  years  continued 
to  inform  the  housing  and  furniture  designs  of 
Neutra,  Wurster,  the  Barneses,  and  other  creative 
figures  in  the  postwar  period. 

Although  California  was  chiefly  imaged 
at  this  time  as  an  efficient  war  machine,  other 
more  disturbing  ideas  circulated  as  well.  The 
mass  media  also  promoted  the  wartime  concep- 
tion of  the  state — and  of  the  United  States 
generally — as  vulnerable  to  potential  threats  by 
"foreigners,"  who  needed  to  be  kept  under  strict 
control.  Indeed,  conceptions  of  Americanness 
became  far  more  restrictive  at  this  time,  as 
widespread  uneasiness  over  the  displacement 
of  the  country's  white  male  population  height- 
ened xenophobia  and  racism.  Among  those 
frequently  branded  foreigners,  in  addition  to 


Japanese  ftmericans  are  sent  to  guarded  internment  camps,  two  of  them  in  California,  where  they  must  remain  until  the  end  of  the  war.  The  last  cente 


Tule  Lake,  California,  did  not  close  until 


a,  b 

Pair  of  anti-Japanese 
propaganda  posters 
produced  by  Fleet  Service 
Schools,  Visual  Education 
Department,  U.S.  Destroyer 
Base,  1941.  Lent  by  the 
Japanese  American  Notiona 
Museum,  gift  of  Ben  and 
TerukoOrel 


Max  /avno 

Street  Talk,  1946,  gela 
silver  print 


Sleepy  Lagoon  Mystery,  a  play 
sympathetic  to  the  defen- 
dants in  the  Sleepy  Lagoon 
case,  by  Guy  Endore,  1944. 
Lent  by  Son  Francisco  State 
University,  Labor  Archives  and 
Research  Center 


AMEBICAWILL  STRAIGHTEN  OUT  HIS 

COCKEYED  SLANT mmmm 


-  LIKE  this/ 


actual  noncitizens,  were  Americans  of  non-Anglo 
ethnicities. 

One  result  of  restrictive  conceptions  of 
Americanness  in  California  was  the  targeting 
of  young  Mexican  males — concentrated  in  the 
state's  poorer  urban  centers — by  white  service- 
men, civilians,  and  the  legal  system.  Identifiable 
by  the  wide-lapelled,  full-cut  "zoot  suits"  they 
and  many  black  and  Filipino  youths  sported — 
despite  the  War  Production  Board's  rationing  of 
cloth — these  pachucos,  as  they  were  called,  were 
stereotyped  in  the  media  as  juvenile  delinquents 
and  were  treated  with  hostility  and  suspicion  by 
the  majority  of  whites.*  The  very  act  of  wearing 
a  zoot  suit  was  ruled  a  misdemeanor  by  the  city 
of  Los  Angeles  during  the  war.  Animosity  against 
this  sector  of  California's  residents  exploded  in 
the  so-called  Zoot  Suit  riots  of  1943.  The  distur- 
bance started  with  an  attack  on  a  group  of 
pachucos  by  an  estimated  200  white  servicemen, 


who  had  entered  a  Los  Angeles  barrio  looking  for 
a  fight  while  on  leave.  After  beating  their  victims, 
they  stripped  them  of  their  zoot  suits  (sources 
of  identity  and  pride)  and  shaved  their  heads, 
thereby  asserting  power  over  the  youths  in 
paramilitary  fashion.  Indicative  of  the  racist 
climate  is  the  fact  that  the  police  primarily 
arrested  the  Mexicans  and  blacks  who  were  the 
objects  of  these  hate  crimes,  rather  than  the 
white  perpetrators. 

A  well-known  instance  of  the  rampant 
racism  against  minorities  during  the  war  was 
the  widely  publicized  Sleepy  Lagoon  case  of  the 
mid-i940s.  This  involved  the  arrest  and  conviction 
of  twenty-two  pachucos  for  criminal  conspiracy, 
assault,  and  murder  in  the  death  of  another 
Mexican  American  youth.  Playing  on  widespread 
wartime  animosity  toward  the  Japanese,  prose- 
cuting attorneys  accused  the  Mexican  youths 
of  having  an  "Oriental . . .  disregard  for  the  value 
of  life."'  With  the  aid  of  the  Sleepy  Lagoon 
Defense  Committee,  headed  by  lawyer  and  jour- 
nalist Carey  McWilliams  and  including  such 
Hollywood  figures  as  Orson  Welles  and  Rita 
Hayworth,  the  convictions  were  later  overturned. 
A  wartime  political  cartoon  in  the  Los  Angeles 
Times  depicting  Japan's  prime  minister,  Tojo, 
wearing  a  zoot  suit,  revealed  a  conflation  of 
Mexicans  and  Asians  as  foreigners  who  allegedly 
could  not  be  trusted.'  These  pervasive  negative 
associations  were  also  reinforced  by  disparaging 
portrayals  of  Mexican,  Asian,  and  African 
Americans  as  unsavory  characters  in  many  noir 
films  of  the  1940s.' 

With  respect  to  California's  artistic  com- 
munity, the  impact  of  wartime  racism  against 
ethnic  minorities  manifested  itself  in  two  princi- 
pal ways.  First,  there  was  a  marked  decline  in 
the  attention  white  artists  paid  Latin  American 
and  Asian  aesthetics  and  subjects  compared  to 
the  previous  two  decades,  during  which  these 


gust  the  body  ofJose  Diaz  is  found  near  an  abandoned  gravel  pit  near  Slauson  and  Atlantic  Boulevards  in  Los  Angelas,  an  area  named  Sleepy  Lagoon  by  a  local  newspaperman.  Twelve  Mexican  American  youths 


cultures  had  been  widely  celebrated  as  exotic  or 
picturesque.  Second,  mainstream  California 
institutions  exhibited  and  collected  far  fewer 
works  by  non-Anglos  at  this  time.  In  particular, 
there  was  notably  diminished  support  for 
Mexican  art,  which  had  enjoyed  a  considerable 
popularity  in  the  1920s  and  1930s  among  muse- 
ums, galleries,  and  private  patrons.  Los  Angeles 
hosted  only  a  single  exhibition  of  Latin  American 
art  during  the  war  years,  and  that  was  organized 
by  an  East  Coast  institution.' 

Another  distressing  manifestation  of 
American  wartime  xenophobia  that  affected 
the  arts  in  California  was  the  internment  of  the 
Japanese  (most  of  whom  were  United  States 
citizens)  by  the  federal  government  from  1942 
to  1945.  Los  Angeles  had  the  highest  Japanese 
population  of  any  city  in  the  United  States  before 
the  war,  and  California  had  been  home  to  a 
significant  portion  of  the  110,000  Japanese 
Americans  and  Japanese  nationals  interned  in 
concentration  camps  in  seven  western  states. 


ire  convicted  of  murder  and  five  of  assault.  Eventually  the  convictions  are  overturned  with  the  help  of  the  Sleepy  Lagoon  Defense  Committee,  but  not  before  eight  of  those  convicted  have  served  tv/o 


Two  of  the  concentration  camps — Manzanar  and 
Tule  Lake — were  located  in  California,  as  were  a 
number  of  temporary  detention  centers  that 
initially  housed  internees.  Tule  Lake  was  reserved 
for  political  "disloyals,"  who  had  given  incom- 
plete or  conditional  responses  on  the  poorly 
designed  loyalty  questionnaires  administered  to 
all  internees." 

The  considerable  body  of  visual  art 
produced  by  Japanese  internees  during  the  war 
conveys  a  wide  range  of  perspectives  on  the 
experience.  Like  many  of  his  fellow  Issei  (first- 
generation  immigrants),  Chiura  Obata  con- 
tinued to  avoid  critical  or  negative  subjects,  as 
he  had  during  the  Depression.  For  example, 
he  painted  a  wistful  image  of  San  Francisco  on 
the  day  he  was  interned.  Although  temporarily 
turning  to  genre  scenes  of  daily  life  in  the  camps, 
he  soon  resumed  painting  his  favorite  subject, 
the  natural  landscape.  Other  internees — for 
example,  Henry  Sugimoto — treated  more  sensi- 
tive topics.  In  a  dignified  portrait  of  his  mother, 
he  suggested  the  painful  irony  of  her  internment 
by  including  a  reference  to  the  division  of  the 
442nd  Regimental  Combat  Team  of  which 
Sugimoto's  brother  was  then  a  member.  This 
unit  of  the  U.S.  Army  consisted  entirely  of  Nisei 
(second-generation  Japanese  Americans).  Yet 
internees,  even  Nisei,  produced  few  strident 
visual  protests."  The  anti-Japanese  fervor  of  the 
day  undoubtedly  inspired  fears  of  censorship 
and  other  forms  of  persecution. 

While  racist  perceptions  of  the  Japanese 
predominated  in  California  during  the  war — 
evidenced  and  perpetuated  by  venomous 
publications  such  as  Once  a  Jap,  Always  a  Jap, 
sponsored  by  the  California  Veterans  of  Foreign 
Wars  of  the  United  States — these  were  countered 
by  a  number  of  sympathetic  voices,  which  at 
times  emanated  from  the  arts  community." 
Institutions  such  as  Mills  College  in  Oakland  and 


yentin  prison      >     I  94  3     >    Trouble  breaks  out  in  June  between  white  sailors  on  leave  and  Mexican  American  youttis,  or  pachucos,  known  for  wearing  zoot  suits,  with  long  jackets,  baggy  pants,  and 


Dorothea  Longe 

Pledge  of  Allegiance,  at 
Raphael  Elementary  School, 
a  Few  IfJeeks  before 
Evacuation /One  Nation 
Indivisible,  April  20,  1942, 
1942,  gelatm-silver  print 


Once  a  Jap,  Always  a  Jap, 
politicQl  tract  by  T.  S. 
VanVleet,  1942.  Lent  by 
UCLA  Library,  Department  of 
Special  Collections 


Chiura  Obota 

Farewell  Picture  of  the  Bay 
Bridge,  April  30.  1942,  1942, 
sumi  on  paper 


Hisoko  Hibi 

We  Had  to  Fetch  Coal  for  the 
Pot -Belly  Stove,  Topaz,  Utah 
1944,  oil  on  canvas 


Henry  Sugimoto 

Mother  m  Jerome  Camp,  1943, 
oil  on  canvas 


the  Pasadena  Art  Institute,  for  example,  exhibited 
works  by  Japanese  Americans  interned  in 
Tanforan  Detention  Camp  near  San  Francisco, 
where  Obata  had  rapidly  established  a  sizable  art 
school.  Although  employed  by  the  government, 
photographer  Dorothea  Lange  publicly  voiced 
opposition  to  the  internment.  Ansel  Adams's 
exhibition  and  subsequent  book  Born  Free  and 
Equal:  The  Story  of  Loyal  Japanese  Americans 
sympathetically  portrayed  the  internees  at 
Manzanar  in  an  effort  to  distinguish  them  from 
the  "disloyal  Japanese  aliens"  held  in  separate 
camps.  Yet  many  of  Adams's  images  effectively 
sanitized  the  experience  of  internment.  In  one 
example,  an  attractive,  well-dressed  young 
woman  smiled  for  the  camera  while  standing 
beneath  a  sign  that  read,  "Relocation."  This 
approach  was  probably  intended  to  humanize 


pancake  hats.  Ciaiming  to  have  been  attacked  by  zoot-suiters,  200  sailors  invade  Eastside  barrios,  seriously  beating  four  youths.  On  June  7  a  mob  of  several  thousand  servicemen  drag  pachu 


Ansel  Adams 

lAt.  Milliamson,  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  from  Manzanar, 
Califorr^ia,  1944,  printed 
1980,  gelatin-silver  print 


Title  spread  from  Born  free 
and  Equal:  The  Story  of  Loyal 
Japanese  Americans  by 
Ansel  Adams,  1944.  Lent  by 
Mrs.  Edmund  L.  Dubois 


Toyo  Miyatake 

Untitled,  1943,  gelat 


Clinton  Adams 

Barrmgton  Street, 
tempera  on  paper 


William  Garnett 

egg  Lakewood  Housing  Project, 

1950,  SIX  gelatin-silver  prin 


the  internees  and  to  emphasize  their  common- 
ahties  with  other  Americans.  For  somewhat 
different  reasons,  including  a  desire  to  normahze 
the  experience  and  render  it  less  disconcerting 
to  himself  and  his  fellow  internees,  photographer 
Toyo  Miyatake  took  a  paradoxically  positive 
approach  to  camp  life  in  many  of  his  images. 
Yet  certain  of  his  other  photographs  reveal  a 
darker  side  of  camp  existence,  whereas  Adams's 
never  do." 

Following  the  devastating  bombing  of 
Hiroshima  in  August  1945,  which  brought  an 
end  to  the  war  in  the  Pacific,  the  United  States 
entered  an  era  of  optimism  fueled  by  extensive 
economic  prosperity.  The  postwar  Utopian 
vision  of  suburban  domestic  life  centered  on  the 
nuclear  family  was  promoted  tirelessly  by  the 
mass  media,  which  now  included  television." 
While  the  Bay  Area  experienced  massive  subur- 
ban growth  during  this  period,'^  Southern 
California — where  sunshine,  jobs,  and  affordable 


;at  them  severely   The  cmly  arrests  made  are  of  44  Mexican  Americans.      >     1  94  5     >    World  War  II  ends,  ushering  in  an  era  of  enormous  economic  growth  and  social  change,  particularly  in  California. 


housing  abounded — was  lauded  as  the  ideal. 
Magazine  and  newspaper  articles  with  such 
titles  as  "Why  People  Leave  Home  to  Live  in  the 
Southland"  and  "Westward  Ho:  California  Home 
Styles  Invade  the  Rest  of  the  U.S."  touted 
California's  easygoing  suburban  lifestyle.  The 
one-story  ranch  house  with  its  "sliding  glass 
walls"  opening  out  onto  private  backyards  with 
barbecues  and  swimming  pools  became  a  highly 
desired  dwelling." 

Like  the  California  bungalow  associated 
with  the  first  half  of  the  century,  the  ranch 
house  was  promoted  as  affording  an  easy,  health- 
ful lifestyle  that  involved  direct  contact  with 
nature.  In  contrast  to  the  boxlike  bungalow, 
which  had  been  designed  in  reaction  against 
the  perceived  excesses  of  East  Coast  Victorian 
architecture,  the  sprawling  ranch  house  was 
billed  as  commodious.  It  answered  the  pro- 
nounced yearning  for  comfort  and  ease  of  living 
that  followed  the  arduous  Depression  and  war 
years."  With  its  self-contained,  indoor-outdoor 
plan,  the  ranch  house  offered  an  appealingly 
fluid  yet  controlled  environment:  a  site  for 
recreation  as  well  as  habitation,  which  could  be 
improved  upon  through  the  purchase  of  an 
endless  array  of  consumer  goods.  Its  principal 
designers — such  as  self-trained  architect  Cliff 
May,  whose  custom-made  homes  became 
prototypes  for  tract  housing — set  out  to  create 
efficient,  tidy,  and  livable  spaces  rather  than 
aesthetic  masterpieces. 

In  tandem  with  the  promotion  of  the 
ranch  house.  Southern  California  in  particular 
became  the  nation's  hot  spot  for  swimsuit 
and  other  sportswear  designs  that  expressly  fit 
the  new  indoor-outdoor  suburban  lifestyle.'* 
As  in  housing  design,  fluidity  of  function  was 
a  major  selling  point  in  fashion.  A  single  outfit 
often  had  multiple  components  that  could  be 
worn  or  removed  depending  on  the  occasion. 


4 


WW 


:\V 


194  6     >    film  noir  productions  thrive  in  the  postwar  era.  These  cynical  and  gloomy  crime  films  often  show  a  seamy  side  of  California  life.    Some  examples  from  this  year  include  The  Big  Sleep,  The  f 'j»- 


Sid  Avery 

Dwight  D.  Eisenhower  in 
LaQumta,  California,  1961 
gelatm-silver  print 


Margit  Fellegi 

Woman's  Bathing  Suit  and 
Skirt,  c.  1944,  glazed  cotton 
chintz,  cotton,  and  elastic 
(Matletex) 


Margit  Fellegi,  who  designed  for  Cole  of 
California,  created  bathing  suits  with  matching 
skirts  that  enabled  a  smooth  transition  from 
poolside  to  dining  room.  Textile  designs  often 
bore  the  imprint  of  suburban  leisure,  such  as 
the  backyard  barbecue  motif  used  by  designer 
DeDe  Johnson  in  her  classic  Woman's  Three-Piece 
Playsiiit  of  the  late  1950s. 

Art  photography  also  bolstered  Southern 
California's  suburban  booster  image.  Sid 
Avery's  portrait  of  a  retired  and  jovial  Dwight 
Eisenhower,  barbecuing  in  his  backyard  in 
short  sleeves,  epitomizes  the  idyllic  vision  of 
the  postwar  years.  Similarly,  Max  Yavno's 
ebullient  image  of  a  crowd-packed  Muscle 
Beach  in  Venice  encapsulates  the  optimism  of 
this  era  and  its  emphasis  on  leisure."  Previously 
a  member  of  New  York's  leftist  Photo  League, 
which  was  dedicated  to  picturing  social  ills, 
Yavno  shifted  his  focus  after  moving  to 
California.  His  Muscle  Beach  photograph. 


Postman  Always  Rings  Twice.     >    Proposition  1 


alidafion  of  the  Alien  Land  Law  barring  Japanese  ownership  of  land,  is  placed  on  the  ballot  but  soundly  rejected  by  voters. 


1  94  7     >    Central 


Catalina  Sportswear 

Moman's  Two-Piece  Batiiing 
Suit  and  Jacl<et,  late  1940s, 
printed  cotton 


DeDe Johnson 

Woman's  Three-Piece  Playsuit, 
late  1950s,  printed  cotton 


James  Hansen 

Beach  Scene  at  Santa  Monica 
in  1949,  1949,  watercolor  on 
paper 


Max  /avno 

Muscle  Beach,  1947,  gelatii 


Larry  Silver 

Newsboy  Holding  Papers, 
1954,  gelatin-silver  print 


Phvsicrl  SsRvidp 

niMUNC  BAywcMG  crwusncs  mmo 


with  its  sea  of  white  all-American  bathin; 
suited  bodies,  uncritically  conveys  the  ethnic 
and  class  homogeneity  intrinsic  to  the  booster 
vision  of  suburban  Los  Angeles.  The  celebra- 
tory nature  of  this  image  is  underscored  by  a 
comparison  with  Larry  Silver's  photograph  of 
a  black  youth  selling  newspapers  on  the  same 
beach.  Silver's  image  suggests  that  postwar 
suburban  leisure  was  restricted  to  the  dominant 
cuhure. 

Yet  the  suburban  dream  of  life  in  California 
did,  in  fact,  reach  a  considerably  broader  range 
of  Americans  than  either  its  boosters  or  its 
detractors  tended  to  reveal.  At  the  lower  end 
economically,  residential  developments  such  as 


valley  Project  is  completed,  generating  electric  power  by  controlling  the  tl 


Lakewood,  near  Long  Beach,  in  Los  Angeles 
County,  were  publicly  billed  as  solidly  middle 
class  while  catering  to  blue-collar  aerospace 
workers  then  flocking  to  Southern  California. 
The  homes  built  for  the  Case  Study  House 
Program  initiated  by  John  Entenza,  editor  of 
the  avant-garde  Los  Angeles-based  magazine 
Arts  and  Architecture,  occupied  the  higher  end. 
The  project  resulted  in  the  construction  of  a 
series  of  homes  designed  by  a  coterie  of 
California  architects,  including  Neutra,  the 
Eameses,  Wurster,  and  Pierre  Koenig.  Although 
intended  as  prototypes  for  affordable  postwar 
housing,  these  modernist  constructions  ulti- 
mately catered  to  an  elite  clientele.  In  addition 
to  being  relatively  expensive,  they  were  too 
austere  to  satisfy  the  taste  for  cozier  dwellings 


shared  by  most  of  the  Middle  Americans  then 
pouring  into  the  Southland.  Nevertheless, 
the  Case  Study  homes  did  kick  off  a  trend  in 
domestic  architecture  that  gradually  took  hold 
nationwide.^" 

In  addition  to  economic  differences, 
there  was  also  a  greater  degree  of  ethnic  diversity 
in  California's  suburbs  than  generally  assumed. 
Catholics  and  Jews  were  sometimes  excluded 
as  residents,  and  there  continued  to  be  extensive 
housing  restrictions  against  African  Americans, 
Asians,  and  Mexicans.  However,  some  black 
suburbs  did  exist,  for  example  in  Marin  City 
and  east  Palo  Alto  in  Northern  California.  As  in 
mainstream  white  publications,  comparable 
black  magazines  also  championed  a  boosterist 
conception  of  California  suburban  living — "the 


:  public  over  control  of  water  and  power     >    House  Un-flmerlcan  Activities  Committee  investigates  Communist  activity  in  \he  federal  government,  organized  labor,  and  Hollywood   The  Hollywood  Ten,  a  group 


Julius  Shulman 

Case  Study  House  "8,  by 
Charles  and  Ray  Eames,  1 
gelatin-silver  print 


Julius  Shulman 

Case  Study  House  "22,  by 
Pierre  Koenig,  1958,  gelatin- 
silver  print 


sports  shirt  and  the  convertible,  the  barbecue 
pit  out  back  and  the  swimming  pool."^'  Ebony 
featured  a  prominent  black  judge  who  lived  in 
Westwood,  indicating  that  at  least  a  few  black 
families  had  entered  even  the  richest  Los  Angeles 
suburbs  by  the  late  1950s." 

Integration,  however,  was  not  generally 
fostered  by  California  housing  developers  in 
the  postwar  period.  Joseph  L.  Eichler  in  the 
Bay  Area  was  one  of  the  few  who  attempted  to 
produce  racially  integrated  suburban  neighbor- 
hoods. Although  California's  suburbs  were 
springing  up  at  an  astounding  rate,  minority 
communities  tended  to  remain  localized  in  the 
state's  poorer  urban  centers.  Twenty-eight 
percent  of  Los  Angeles's  black  population,  for 
example,  reportedly  resided  in  "slums"  in  1949." 
Similarly,  Mexican  Americans  living  in  the  Bay 
Area's  Santa  Clara  Valley  were  concentrated  in 
the  east  San  Jose  barrio  in  the  1950s.  The  suburbs 
were  expressly  promoted  as  safe  havens  from 
these  urban  minority  populations,  which  contin- 
ued to  be  associated  with  crime  and  disorder 


i^^SRLD 


m 


Our  Morld  magazine,  October 
1952,  Lent  by  UCLA  Library, 
Department  af  Special 
Collections 


Charles  and  Ray  Eames 

ETR  (elliptical  Table,  Rod 
Base),  1951,  plywood,  plastic 
laminate,  and  wire  base 


Midcentury  Modern 

The  story  of  twentieth-century 
design  is  one  of  innovation,  factory 
production,  new  materials,  and  the 
rise  of  designers  trained  in  architec- 
ture, industrial  design,  or  fine  art. 
Designers  began  to  use  man-made 
materials  as  well  as  processes  such 


as  machine  molding  in  plastics,  fiber- 
glass, metaf,  glass,  and  plywood. 
Conforming  to  the  modernist  credo 
established  in  California  through  the 
work  of  Schindler  and  Neutra  more 
than  a  decade  earlier— that  good 
design  be  functional,  affordable, 
efficient,  and  durable— midcentury 
furniture  designers  emphasized 
versatility,  adoptability  for  indoor 
and  outdoor  use,  unadorned  struc- 
ture, and  a  unified  overall  design. 

The  California  move  to  postwar 
modernism  was  led  by  the  adven- 
turesome and  innovative  husbond- 
and-wife  team  of  Charles  and  Roy 
fames,  whose  designs— distributed 


i 

4 


of  screenwriters  and  directors  who  refuse  to  testify,  cire  barred  from  worl<ing  in  Hcllywood,  Hundreds  in  Hollywood  are  unemployed  or  work  under  pseudonyms  for  little  pay  during  this  period.     >    Mode 


bu.-i<ground 
Gregory  Ain 

(Ain,  Johnson,  and  Day) 
Mar  Vista  Houses  for 
Adi/cr^ced  Developrrtent 
Company,  Venice,  California, 
Aerial  Perspective,  1946-48 


Jerome  Ackerman 

Ceramic  Pieces,  1953-60 
stoneware,  glazed 


Charfes  and  Ray  Eames 

£SU  (£ames  Storage  Unit), 
1951-52,  plywood,  metal,  a 
particleboard 


Elsie  Crawford 

Zipper  Light  II,  1965  (thi: 
example,  1997),  acrylic 


nationally— exemplified  the  unfet- 
tered L.A.  lifestyle.  In  their  production 
studio  in  Venice,  California,  they 
created  a  design  legacy  that  included 
explorations  in  ergonomics,  experi- 
mentation with  new  materials,  and 
multimedia  productions.  The  resi- 
dence that  they  built  for  themselves, 
the  landmark  Cose  Study  House  *8, 
provided  on  ideal  aesthetic  environ- 
ment for  their  modern  furniture 
designs.  They  believed  that  living  in 
a  well-designed  space  with  finely 
crafted  furnishings  made  for  a 
healthier,  happier  individual  and 
that  good  design  in  the  service  of 
progressive  modernization  could 
effect  positive  social  change. 

When  war  was  declared  in 
1941,  the  Eameses  were  awarded  a 
Navy  contract  for  molded  plywood 
aircraft  parts,  leg  splints,  and 
litters,  a  project  that  influenced 
subsequent  furniture  designs.  Their 
molding  of  plywood  into  supportive 
ergonomic  shapes  resulted  in  some 
of  the  best-known  chairs  of  the  twen- 
tieth century.  Later  furniture  used 
materials  from  the  defense  and 
aerospace  industries:  cast  aluminum, 
wire  mesh,  and  fiberglass-reinforced 
plastic.  Eames  chairs  were  designed 
for  a  variety  of  contexts,  from  air- 
ports to  office  towers,  and  remain 
among  the  most  familiar  forms  of 
residential,  commercial,  and  public 
seating. 

The  period  environment  created 
for  the  Made  in  California  exhibition 
featured  seating,  a  table,  a  storage 
unit,  and  a  folding  screen  designed 


Hendrick  Van  Keppel  and 
Taylor  Green 

Small  Chaise  and  Ottoman, 
1939  (this  example,  1959), 
enamel-baked  steel  and 
cotton  cord 


Charles  and  Roy  Eames 

Wire  Mesh  Chair  with  Low  Wir 
Base,  1951-53,  wire 


by  the  Eameses,  complemented  by 
elegant  indoor-outdoor  furniture 
by  Hendrick  Van  Keppel  and  Taylor 
Green,  Los  Angeles  designers  known 
for  inventive,  versatile  pieces  suited 
to  the  casual  California  lifestyle. 
The  outdoor  aspect  of  the  environ- 
ment was  further  defined  by  Lagardo 
Tackett's  modular,  geometric  glazed 
pottery  planters  and  freestanding 
sculptures.  Home  accessories  were 
distinguished  by  biomorphic  shapes, 
geometric  decorative  elements,  and 
other  organic  and  space-age  motifs 
popular  during  the  period. 

JO    LAURIA 


Design  should  bring  the  most  of  the  best  to  the  greatest  number  of  people  for  the  least. 

CHARL6S    EAMES 


founded  by  Vincent  Price  and  Sam  J.affe.  opens  in  Beverly  Hills      >    ft  huge  construction  boom  gets  under  v/ay  in  California   Temporary  wartime  facilities  are  replaced,  and  houses  and  schools  are  built. 


i 


Lagordo  Tacl<ett 

Untitled,  c.  1960,  ceramic 
glazed 


inaugurating  the  suburban  way  of  life  for  returning  GIs  and  ttieir  families.     >    Supreme  Court  rules  that  school  systems  receiving  federal  funds  must  give  special  attention  to  students  unable  to  speak 


in  the  local  and  national  press,  as  they  had  been 
during  the  war. 

The  1940s  and  1950s  witnessed  many 
widely  publicized  urban  renewal  and  urban 
development  projects — including  the  expansion 
of  California's  infrastructure — which  were  vari- 
ously backed  and  opposed  by  divergent  political 
factions.  The  construction  of  new  freeways,  for 
example,  spurred  by  the  passage  of  the  $100 
billion  Interstate  Highway  Act  of  1956,  was  vigor- 
ously promoted  by  the  state's  boosters.  Yet,  as 
socially  minded  critics  noted,  since  many  new 


freeway  routes  cut  directly  through  these  urban 
communities,  they  had  the  deleterious  effect  of 
increasing  white  flight  to  the  suburbs  and 
contributing  to  the  decline  of  nonwhite  urban 
neighborhoods.  Another  major  cause  supported 
by  business  leaders  after  the  war  was  the  conver- 
sion of  "blighted"  residential  areas,  such  as 
Bunker  Hill  in  Los  Angeles,  into  profitable  new 
commercial  and  civic  districts.  These  develop- 
ments were  contested  by  local  liberals  and  by 
the  neighborhood  inhabitants,  who  fought — 
ultimately  unsuccessfully  in  the  case  of  Bunker 
Hill — to  refurbish  the  existing  residential 
communities  instead.^" 

Certain  artists  offered  an  unreservedly 
positive  view  of  the  processes  of  urban  develop- 
ment in  California.  Emil  Kosa,  in  his  watercolor 
entitled  Freeway  Beginning,  depicts  a  new  freeway 
artery  under  construction.  It  spills  out  welcom- 
ingly  into  the  viewer's  space  and  completely 
elides  the  downtown  area,  which  appears  only 
as  a  benign,  picturesque  backdrop.  Other  artists 
who  addressed  these  developments  from  an 
uncritical  perspective  made  use  of  a  sleek, 
hard-edged  visual  vocabulary  reflective  of  their 
modern  subjects.  Los  Angeles  realist  painter 
Roger  Kuntz  depicts  a  quintessential  Southern 
California  subject  in  Santa  Ana  Arrows,  a  work 
aesthetically  ahead  of  its  time.  East  Coast 
Precisionist  Charles  Sheeler,  whose  views  of 
Northern  and  Southern  California  were  based 
on  three  visits  he  made  after  the  war,  presents  a 


i  nia  legislature  passes  the  Collier-Burns  Act,  committing  gasoline  taxes  and  motor  registration  fees  to  highway  construction.     >    The  gruesome  murder  of  aspiring  actress  Elizabeth  Short,  known  as  "The 


Chorles  Sheeler 

Edward  Biberman 

Roger  Kuntz 

Max  yavno 

EmilJ.  Kosajr. 

California  Industrial,  1957, 

The  Hollywood  Palladium, 

Santa  Ana  Arrows,  c. 

19505, 

Night  View  from  Coit  Tower, 

Freeway  Beginning,  c 

1948 

oil  on  canvas 

C.1955,  oilonCelotexon 
board 

oil  on  canvas 

1947,  gelatm-silver  print 

watercolor  on  paper 

anta  Ana 


•^,,^.. 

--^'*"ii;"  ••* 

.■'  _    •.      II 

Hi 

'■  (.0 

celebratory  vision  of  the  state's  new  industrial 
landscape.  In  his  painting  California  Industrial, 
the  heroically  rectilinear  built  environment  easily 
subsumes  the  curving  natural  terrain. 

Apart  from  big  business  and  other  propo- 
nents of  urban  development,  so-called  progres- 
sive forces — some  carried  over  from  the  New 
Deal  era — proved  more  mindful  of  the  plight 
of  California's  urban  underclass.  Despite  appar- 
ently good  intentions,  however,  these  advocates 
did  not  always  effectively  serve  the  interests  of 
the  communities  they  targeted.  The  Housing 
Authority  of  the  City  of  Los  Angeles,  originally 
established  during  World  War  II  to  provide 
public  housing  for  war  workers  and  their 
families,  offers  an  apt  example.  Its  publication 
A  Decent  Home:  An  American  Right  featured  on 


BUick  Dahli.3"  murder,  causes  a  scandal  in  Los  Rngeles,  More  than  50  people  confess  to  the  killing,  but  despite  a  half  century  of  professional  and  amateur  sleuthing,  the  ca 


open     >    1  94  8 


Illustration  from  the 
Los  Angeles  Housing 
Authority's  booklet  k  Decent 
Home:  An  American  Right, 
showing  the  alleged  effects 
of  substandard  housing, 
1945-49.  Lent  by  the  Southern 
California  Library  for  Social 
Studies  and  Research 


Don  Normark 

Untitled,  from  Lo  Lomo  series, 
1949,  gelotm-silver  print 


Lou  Stoumen 

Tenements  of  Bunker  Hill, 
1948,  gelatin-silver  print 


Eviction  of  the  Arechiga 
family  from  Chavez  Ravins 
May  8,  1959.  Lent  by  USC, 
Regional  History  Center, 
Department  of  Special 
Collections 


its  cover  an  ethnically  diverse  group  of  service- 
men returning  to  California  after  the  war.  While 
the  Housing  Authority  ostensibly  represented 
the  interests  of  the  working  class,  its  mission  to 
clean  up  indigent  urban  neighborhoods  was,  in 
fact,  informed  by  a  moralistic  desire  to  eradicate 
"sub-standard  behavior  patterns,"  which  it 
attributed  to  "sub-standard  living  conditions."" 
In  A  Decent  Home,  maps  and  charts  addressing 
"bad  housing  areas"  equated  urban  social 
problems  such  as  juvenile  delinquency  with 
contagious  diseases,  viruslike  ills  that  needed  to 
be  controlled  and  eradicated  before  they  spread 
to  "healthy"  communities. 

The  efforts  of  such  city  agencies  resulted 
in  the  proposed  development  in  the  early  1950s 
of  several  low-income  urban  housing  projects, 
which  at  times  engaged  the  energies  of  socially 
conscious  modernist  architects,  including  leftist 
Gregory  Ain  and  more  moderate  liberal  Richard 
Neutra.  One  such  project,  Elysian  Park  Heights, 
codesigned  by  Neutra  and  Robert  Alexander, 
was  intended  to  improve  a  "depressed"  residential 
area  in  Los  Angeles's  Chavez  Ravine.  The  early 
implementation  of  plans  for  this  development 
in  1949  resulted  in  the  temporary,  and  eventually 
permanent,  displacement  of  the  area's  long- 
standing community  of  1,000  Mexican  American 
families.  (In  fact,  most  of  these  residents  could 
not  have  afforded  the  proposed  housing  had  it 
been  completed.)  The  project  was  red-baited — 
which  is  ironic  given  its  impact  on  the  poor 
local  community — and  declared  evidence  of 
"creeping  Socialism"  by  the  Los  Angeles  Times 
and  the  city's  business  leaders,  who  put  a  stop 
to  it  by  1953."  In  a  controversial  decision  backed 
by  the  mayor,  the  land  "once  cluttered  with 
shacks"  was  given  to  the  newly  transplanted 
Brooklyn  Dodgers  baseball  team  for  the  con- 
struction of  their  new  stadium." 


In  the  visual  arts  some  well-intentioned 
liberals  departed  from  a  boosterist  perspective  to 
consider  the  ills  that  befell  ethnic  immigrants 
and  other  impoverished  city  dwellers. 
Photographer  Lou  Stoumen  created  a  dramatic 
image  of  a  man  (the  artist  himself)  gazing  out  at 
a  scene  of  urban  blight  from  a  tenement  balcony 
in  Tenements  of  Bunker  Hill.  Stoumen's  portrayal 
of  Bunker  Hill  marks  a  departure  fi-om  Millard 
Sheets's  Angel's  Flight  (see  p.  104),  an  earlier  sani- 
tized version  of  the  same  neighborhood.  Yet  there 
was  a  strong  dose  of  romanticism  in  this  highly 
theatrical  and  obviously  staged  self-portrait: 
Stoumen  was  not  a  resident  of  Bunker  Hill. 


''^sM 


]ai2  scene  In  Los  flngeles  is  in  its  heyday.  Wartinne  industries  attracted  ttiousands  of  African  Americans  to  Soutt>ern  California,  and  the  area  bustles  with  activity.  Some  of  the  most  famous  musicians 


A  romanticizing  spirit  also  infused  the  photo- 
graphs of  La  Loma,  a  neighborhood  in  Chavez 
Ravine.  These  were  taken  by  Don  Normark  in 
1949,  the  same  year  that  Neutra  and  Alexander 
received  their  ill-fated  Elysian  Park  Heights 
commission.  These  images  of  the  community 
that  Normark  had  stumbled  upon  as  a  young 
photographer  portray  the  local  residents  and 
their  modest  surroundings  as  picturesque. 
Normark  later  recalled  that  he  felt  he  had  discov- 
ered "a  poor  man's  Shangri-la."^'  An  unidentified 
photojournalist  working  in  1959  captured  in  a 
series  of  searing  images  what  was  then  a  major 
media  event:  the  eviction  of  the  last  residents 
of  Chavez  Ravine,  the  Arechiga  family,  who  had 
resisted  the  city's  buyout  and  lost  their  home 
of  thirty-six  years. 

Few  images  of  California  generated  by 
members  of  its  working  class  were  widely  publi- 
cized. Watts  Towers,  originally  titled  Nuestra 
Pueblo  (Our  Town)  by  their  creator,  Italian 
immigrant  Sabato  (Simon)  Rodia,  are  a  notable 
exception.  Depicted  under  construction  by  Dada 
artist  Man  Ray — whose  sense  of  alienation  as  a 
wartime  transplant  from  Paris  to  Los  Angeles 


to  play  on  Central  fivenue  Include  Nat  King  Cole,  Charlie  Parker,  Dijzy  Gillespie,  Buddy  Collette,  and  Johnny  Otis.     >    Supreme  Court  rules  that  enforcement  of  covenants  against  sellmg  real  estate  to  African  Hrun 


Man  Roy 

Notts  Towers,  Los  Angele 
1940s,  gelatm-silver  prir 


may  account  for  his  attraction  to  this  work  by  a 
cultural  outsider — the  Watts  Towers  were  Rodia's 
personalized  vision  of  a  fantasy  community. 
Created  over  a  thirty-year  period,  they  were  com- 
pleted in  1954  at  the  pinnacle  of  the  Southern 
California  suburban  housing  boom.  The  towers 
offered  a  distinctly  urban  counterpoint  to  the 
new  suburbs,  albeit  an  equally  Utopian  one." 
Although  Rodia  intended  the  work  as  a  celebra- 
tion rather  than  as  a  critical  statement,  this  fanci- 
ful grouping  of  swirling  steel  structures  covered 
in  a  colorful  mosaic  of  discarded  glass  and 
ceramic  fragments  effectively  flouted  the  qualities 
of  newness,  cleanliness,  and  homogeneity  cham- 
pioned within  mainstream  suburbia. 

From  their  inception,  the  Watts  Towers 
served  as  an  icon  for  the  ethnically  diverse, 
working-class  residential  community  of  Watts. 
Not  surprisingly,  then,  the  towers  were  quickly 
perceived  as  a  threat  by  the  forces  that  sought 


to  contain  and  control  this  community  in  the 
name  of  urban  improvement.  Central  among 
these  was  the  Los  Angeles  Building  and  Safety 
Committee,  which  deemed  the  towers  a  public 
safety  hazard  and  called  for  their  destruction 
in  1959.  Those  who  fought  successfully  to  keep  the 
towers  standing  included  members  of  the  local 
arts  community,  some  of  whom  were  producing 
assemblage  works  sympathetic  to  Rodia's  junk 
aesthetic."  In  subsequent  decades,  the  Watts 
Towers  became  an  integral  aspect  of  the  state's 
image  and  were  even  included  on  the  cover  of 
a  1969  issue  of  Time  magazine  devoted  to 
California  (see  p.  193). 

In  tandem  with  the  dissemination  of 
suburban  and  urban  images  of  California,  the 
state's  natural  landscape  once  again  became  a 
common  subject,  following  something  of  a  hiatus 
during  the  war.  Yet  it  proved  to  be  a  highly 
contested  one  during  the  Cold  War  years,  partic- 
ularly within  the  arts.  While  picturesque  scenes 
of  nature  were  still  commonly  exhibited  by 
the  region's  major  art  institutions,  works  that 
portrayed  the  landscape  in  expressionistic  or 
abstracted  terms  were  rarely  shown  in  public 
spaces.  When  they  did  appear,  such  images  met 
with  active  hostility  from  the  white  establish- 
ment. This  was  the  case  when  several  modernist 
landscapes  received  prizes  at  one  of  Los  Angeles's 
uniquely  all-inclusive  outdoor  art  festivals, 
organized  by  a  liberal-minded  director  of  the 
Municipal  Art  Department  and  held  in  Griffith 
Park.  In  response,  the  conservative  City  Council's 
Building  and  Safety  Committee — spurred  on 
by  disgruntled  landscape  painters  who  had  not 
won  awards  at  the  festival — led  a  public  investi- 
gation of  the  festival  proceedings,  arguing  that 
there  had  been  "a  heavy  Communist  infiltration 
at  this  exhibit."^' 

Among  the  unconventional  landscapists 
castigated  as  leftist  radicals  regardless  ot  their 


Diation  of  the  14th  flmendment  and  the  civil  Rights  Act  of  1866.     >    Hell's  flngels  motorcycle  club  forms  In  Fontana      >     194  9     >    Professors  on  University  of  California  campuses  who  refuse  to  sign  a 


Richard  Diebenkorn 

Berkeley '32,  1955,  oil 
canvas 


KnudMerrild 

Flux  Bouquet,  1947, 
Masonite 


Helen  Lundeberg 

The  Shadow  on  the  Road  to 
the  Sea,  I960,  oil  on  canvas 


actual  political  views  were  Helen  Lundeberg 
(ironically,  a  fervent  isolationist  before  and 
during  the  war),  Knud  Merrild,  and  Rex  Brandt. 
Brandt  was  falsely  accused  by  the  City  Council 
of  hiding  a  hammer  and  sickle  insignia  in  one 
of  his  expressionistic  seascapes."  In  this  climate 
of  right-wing  paranoia,  Lundeberg  and  Merrild 
were  held  under  suspicion  for  their  modernist 
aesthetics,  which  yielded — in  addition  to  entirely 
abstract  works — unconventional  depictions 
of  the  California  landscape.  Lundeberg's  cool, 
minimalist  visions  such  as  The  Shadow  on  the 
Road  to  the  Sea  verge  on  total  abstraction. 
Merrild,  who  had  invented  a  drip  technique 
called  "flux"  that  predated  Jackson  Pollock's, 
rendered  the  natural  world  as  an  inchoate, 
untamed  entity  in  works  such  as  Flux  Bouquet. 


'test  oatti"  declaring  ttiat  they  are  not  Communists  are  fired  by  university  regents.     >    1  9  5  1      >    In  lakewood,  California,  the  nation's  biggest  single-ov/ner  real  estate  development,  17,000  houses  are  offe 


Neither  these  artists  nor  any  of  the  other  so-called 
subversives  of  the  period  supported  a  pictur- 
esque or  otherwise  reassuringly  familiar  vision 
of  the  landscape. 

In  contrast,  the  California  painters  who 
were  widely  esteemed  generally  upheld  a  scenic 
vision  of  the  state,  which  boosters  were  once  again 
heavily  promoting  after  the  war.  The  tourist 
industries  and  the  mass  media  expended  tremen- 
dous energy  on  presenting  postwar  California  as 
a  prime  site  for  recreational  activity  and  visual 
consumption.  A  number  of  artists  contributed 
to  this  conception.  Perhaps  most  influential  in 
this  regard  was  Ansel  Adams,  whose  inspiring 
photographs  of  nature  were  exhibited  and  well 
received  in  art  circles  but  also  held  currency  at 
the  time  with  a  broader  public.  In  1951  Adams's 
work  graced  the  pages  of  Time  magazine,  accom- 
panied by  the  caption,  "No  artist  has  pictured 
the  magnificence  of  the  western  states  more 
eloquently."  His  arrestingly  beautiful  images  of 
Yosemite  attracted  droves  of  new  visitors  to  this 
already  heavily  trafficked  national  park." 

Adams  complemented  his  fine-art  projects 
during  the  postwar  years  with  straight  commer- 
cial work  for  Eastman  Kodak  and  other  companies. 


In  various  advertisements  for  Kodak,  he  pre- 
sented the  infiltration  of  the  natural  landscape 
by  tourists  in  uncritical  terms.  One  such  ad 
contained  a  classic,  pristine  view  of  the  Yosemite 
Valley  juxtaposed  to  two  images  of  vacationers 
pointing  cameras  at  the  park's  Vernal  Falls. 
Adams's  grand  yet  comfortingly  picturesque 
images  numbered  among  the  depictions  of  the 
California  landscape  most  welcomed  by  regional 
and  national  business.  His  photographs  appeared 
in  the  1954  annual  reports  of  Bank  of  America, 
Pacific  Gas  and  Electric,  and  the  Polaroid 
Corporation,  as  well  as  the  Curry  Company, 
which  ran  Yosemite's  concessions.^' 

The  many  nature-oriented  theme  parks 
that  sprang  up  in  California  during  the  1950s— 
Pacific  Ocean  Park,  Mission  Bay  Aquatic  Park, 
and  Marineland,  to  name  a  few — reveal  the  pop- 
ularity of  the  domesticated  or  tamed  landscape 
as  a  site  for  postwar  recreation.  Like  Disneyland, 
which  quickly  became  synonymous  with 
Southern  California  after  its  opening  in  1955, 
these  parks  offered  highly  mediated  experiences 
of  the  physical  world,  which  approximated 


:3le,    >    1952     >    McCarran-Walter  Act  allows  federal  authorities  to  question  the  loyalty  of  minority  residents  and  fo  force  potential  citizens  to  name  suspected  Communist  sympathizers     >    Richard  Nixon 


Brett  Weston 

Garapata  Beach,  1954, 
gelatin-silver  print 


Marguerite  Wildenhaii 

Squared  Vase.  c.  1947, 
stoneware,  glazed 


California  Holiday  in  Color, 
souvenir  book,  1950s. 
Lent  by  the  San  Diego 
Historical  Society  Research 
Archives 


Ansel  Adams 

Half  Dome  and  Moon, 
yosemite  Valley,  Califon 
c,  1950,  gelatm-silverp 


runs  for  vice  president  and  campaigns  vigorously  in  his  home  state,  California.     >    Rose  Bowl  stadium  is  the  site  of  the  first  nat 


elecast  of  a  college  football  ga 


19  5  3     >    Chavez  Ravii 


Brochures  for  Marineland, 
Mission  Bay  Aquatic  Park,  and 
Pacific  Ocean  Park,  1950s. 
LentbyJimHeimann,  the 
San  Diego  Historical  Society 
Research  Archives,  and 
Charles  Phoenix,  respectively 


b,  c 

Disneyland  admission  tickets 
and  envelope,  and  map  from 
official  guide,  1957.  Lent  by 
Jim  Heimonn 


The  original  Barbie  doll 
Collection  of  Mattel,  Ir 


1959.  Larry  Silver 

Contestants,  Muscle  Beach, 
California,  1954,  gelatin- 


Our  World  magazine, 
September  1949.  Lent  by 
UCLA  Library,  Department  of 
Special  Collections 


MAMNEIAND 


suburban  life  in  their  emphasis  on  homogeneity 
and  control.  Excluding  ethnic  difference  and 
other  forms  of  diversity,  Disneyland  went  fur- 
thest of  all  in  mirroring  Southern  California 
suburbia  as  portrayed  by  Hollywood  and  the 
popular  media." 

Another  California  landscape  of  sorts 
colonized  and  marketed  by  boosters  after  the 
war  was  the  human  body.  From  he-men  to 
Barbie,  Southern  California  personae  in  particu- 
lar were  celebrated  for  their  physiques,  which 
were  well  Icnown  to  vast  audiences  through 
Hollywood  films,  television,  and  other  mass 
media.  Sid  Avery's  fan  magazine  photograph  of 
a  strapping  Rock  Hudson  draped  in  a  bath  towel 
effectively  promoted  this  boosterist  conception 
of  physique.  The  ideal  postwar  California  body 
exuded  youth,  good  health,  and  fitness.  This  is 
reflected  in  a  1954  photograph  of  robust  figures 
on  Muscle  Beach  by  newly  arrived  New  Yorker 
Larry  Silver,  who  in  the  same  series  approached 
this  subject  from  a  very  different  perspective 
(see  p.  159).  The  body  was  often  visually  linked 
with  the  local  physical  environment.  Indeed, 
what  most  clearly  distinguished  popular  photo- 
graphic images  of  California  beauties  from  those 
of  models  taken  elsewhere  was  that  the  former 
were  shot  out-of-doors  rather  than  in  a  studio. 
Like  the  indigenous  natural  landscape,  the 
homegrown  California  body  was  associated  with 
abundance,  which  in  concert  with  1950s  ideals 
of  attractiveness  meant  ample  muscles  for  men 
and  large  breasts  for  women. 

Less-mainstream  visions  of  the  California 
body  also  circulated  during  these  years,  albeit 
within  more  Hmited  communities.  These 
included  images  associated  with  gay  male 
culture,  still  predominantly  underground  during 
this  period  (although  a  homophile  group 
called  the  Mattachine  Society  was  founded  in 
Los  Angeles  in  1950  by  Harry  Hay  and  fashion 


mostly  working-class  and  poor  Mexican  Americans,  is  labeled  a  slum,  and  7,500  of  its  residents  are  removed  despite  tremendous  resistance.     >     19  54     >    Supreme  Court  rules,  in  Brown  v   Bodrd  of 


Education  of  Topeka,  that  racial  segregation  is  unconstitutional.  This  dec 


crucial  in  spurrin 


rights  movement,  which  finds  strong  support  in  California.     >    Sabato  (Simon)  Rodia  aba 


a 

b 

c 

d 

e 

Sid  Avery 

Robert  Mizer 

Physique  Pictorial  magazine, 

Paul  Wonner 

Rex  Brandt 

Rock  Hudson,  Out  of  the 

Qmnn  Sondergaard,  Athletic 

fall  1954.  Collection  of  John 

Untitled  [Two  Men  at  the 

Surfnders,  1959 

Shower  at  His  Hollywood  Hills 

Model  Guild,  c.  1954,  gelatin- 

Sonsini 

Shore;,  c.  1960,  oil  and 

canvas 

Home,  1952,  gelatm-silver 

silver  print 

charcoal  on  canvas 

print 

f 

Elmer  Bischoff 

Two  Figures  at  the  Seashon 
1957,  oil  on  canvas 


designer  Rudi  Gernreich).  Homoerotic  maga- 
zines, posing  under  the  guise  of  health  and 
fitness  publications,  disseminated  such  images 
regionally,  nationally,  and  internationally  to 
powerful  effect.  Indeed,  British  transplant  David 
Hockney  has  said  that  the  beautiful  male  bodies 
pictured  in  magazines  such  as  Physique  Pictorial 
were  what  first  lured  him  to  Los  Angeles." 
Physique  Pictorial  was  produced  in  Los  Angeles 
by  Robert  Mizer,  whose  beefcake  shots  of 
scantily  clad  muscle  men  along  with  those  of 
Bruce  of  L.A.  subverted  narrow  1950s  definitions 
of  masculinity  by  exaggerating  them  to  the 
point  of  camp. 

Other  midcentury  California  artists  who 
made  the  body — often  the  male  body — a  primary 
subject  of  their  work  were  several  members  of 
the  Bay  Area  Figurative  school,  which  rejected 
the  Abstract  Expressionist  idiom  then  being 
championed  by  the  New  York  School  in  favor  of 
a  representational  style."  These  artists,  including 
David  Park,  Paul  Wonner,  Elmer  Bischoff,  and 
Theophilus  Brown,  offered  a  less  fetishistic 
conception  of  the  body  than  either  Mizer  or 
Bruce  of  L.A.  Theophilus  Brown  went  so  far  as 


HYSIOUE 


tts  Towers  in  Los  fingeles  and  moves  to  Northern  California,     >    Operation  Wetback  conducts  widely  publicized  sweeps  of  suspected  Illegal  aliens,  particularly  in  California  and  tf)e  Southwest.  By  Septembe 


more  than  1  million  Mexicans  are  allegedly  expelled. 


controversy  breaks  out  over  Bernard  Rosenthal's  moderni: 


of  a  "faceless  family,"  which  was  commissioned  for  the  new  los  finge 


#3i/-|5?^* 


to  consult  contemporary  nudist  magazines  in  his 
quest  for  nontraditional  ways  of  rendering  tine 
male  body  in  his  paintings.''  Similarly,  Joan  Brown 
departed  from  the  conventional  aestheticizing  of 
the  female  body  in  aggressively  expressionistic  and 
intensely  hued  works  such  as  Girl  in  Chair. 

Fashion  designer  Rudi  Gernreich,  who  in 
the  early  1950s  eliminated  the  constricting 
boned  and  padded  interior  construction  com- 
mon in  women's  bathing  suits  of  the  period — 
see,  for  example.  Christian  Dior's  1956  design — 
also  challenged  the  conventional  image  of  the 
California  physique.  His  unconstructed,  form- 
fitting  knitted  swimsuits  were  created  for  less 
curvaceous  figures  than  those  of  the  voluptuous, 


ding,     >    19  5  5     >    African  Americans  boycott  buses  in  Montgomery,  Alabama,  to  protest  a  law  requiring  them  to  ride  in  the  back.  Mobilizing  thousands  and  beginning  the  civil  rights  movement,  the  boycott 


Joan  Brown 

Magazine  advertisement  for 

Rudi  Gernreich 

George  Hurrell 

How  to  Sin  in  Hollywood, 

Philippe  Holsman 

Girl  in  Chair.  1962,  oil  on 

swimwearby  Dior  for  Cole  of 

i^oman's  BathirtgSui 

,  1952, 

Jane  Russell,  1946,  gelatin- 

booklet,  1940.  Lent  by 

Dorothy  Dandndge,  1955 

canvas 

California,  1956 

wool  knit 

silver  print 

JimHeimann 

gelatin-silver  print 

hypersexualized  starlets  who  graced  the  1940s 
and  1950s  Hollywood  screen.  Gernreich's  designs 
were  instrumental  precursors  to  the  widespread 
liberation  of  the  female  body  during  the  1960s. 

Although  still  a  touchstone  for  societal 
definitions  of  beauty,  Hollywood  became  during 
the  postwar  period  one  of  the  main  fronts  on 
which  California  was  associated  with  unconven- 
tional or  subversive  activities.  The  aura  of 
glamour  and  sophistication  that  had  enveloped 
the  industry  and  its  stars  in  the  prewar  and 
war  years  was  replaced  after  1945,  in  large  part, 
by  a  cloud  of  ambiguity."  While  movie  stars 
were  still  objects  of  fascination,  they  were  not 
emulated  to  the  same  degree  after  the  war."" 
This  era's  steamy  starlets  were  more  overtly  sexu- 
alized  than  prewar  sirens.  Accordingly,  they  were 
more  likely  to  be  regarded  as  "unwholesome" 
by  mainstream  America,  particularly  given  the 


brings  national  attention  to  Martin  Luther  King  Jr.  This  social  and  political  struggle  would  later  influence  activism  in  California,  from  the  Free  Speech  Movement  in  Berkeley  to  Brov/n  Power,  the  Black  Pant 


Virgil  Apger 

Carmen  Miranda,  Publicity 
Photo  for  "A  Date  with  Judy,' 
1948,  carbro  print 


Robert  Frank 

Television  Studio,  Burbank, 
California,  1956,  gelatin- 
silver  print 


Ely  de  Vescovl 

Hollywood.  1941 
canvas 


Edward  Biberman 

Conspiracy,  c.  1955,  oil  on 
board 


Hans  Burkhardt 

Reagan— Blood  Money,  1945, 
oil  on  canvas 


erican  Indian  movement,  and  the  United  Farm  Workers.    >    James  Dean  stars  in  Rebel  without  a  Cause,  signifying  Hollywood's  recognition  of  a  new  teen  culture  and  market     >    The  state  spends  >!  million  per 


conservative  climate  of  the  day.  In  addition, 
the  industry  itself  was  threatened  by  strikes, 
competition  from  television  and  foreign  films, 
and,  most  notably,  the  events  surrounding  the 
House  Un-American  Activities  Committee  inves- 
tigation that  began  in  1947.  The  blacklisting  of 
the  Hollywood  Ten — a  group  of  screenwriters 
and  directors — following  their  refusal  to  testify 
before  Congress  divided  the  Hollywood  commu- 
nity and  cast  a  Communist  shadow  on  the  indus- 
try for  years  to  come.  Artists  Hans  Burkhardt 
and  Edward  Biberman,  both  of  whom  had 
worked  at  movie  studios,  offered  dark  perspec- 
tives on  the  Hollywood  witch-hunt.  In  Reagan — 
Blood  Money,  Burkhardt  specifically  indicts 
Ronald  Reagan,  then  head  of  the  Screen  Actors 
Guild,  for  his  zealous  efforts  to  purge  the  studios 
of  all  suspected  Communists. 

The  creative  voices  in  California  who 
offered  possibly  the  most  critical  perspective  on 
postwar  consensus  culture — and  who,  in  turn, 
garnered  profound  reproach  from  it — belonged 
to  the  bohemian  community  of  writers  and  artists 
known  as  the  Beats.  In  the  visual  arts,  figures 
such  as  Bruce  Conner,  Wallace  Berman,  and 
Jess  addressed  subjects  regarded  by  the  cultural 
mainstream  as  uninteresting,  distasteful,  or 
strictly  taboo.  Their  materials  were  often  the 
castoffs  and  detritus  of  suburban  consumer 


orking  day  on  new  freeways  and  highways.     >    Disneyland,  the  world's  first  theme  park,  opens  in  Anaheim,  promising  "the  happiest  place  on  earth."    >    Syndell  Studio  presents  fiction  I,  the  first  rm 


On  the  Road  by  Jack  Kerouac,  "Squaresville  U.S.A.  vs. 

first  paperback  edition,  1958.  Beatsville,"  ti/e  magazine, 

Lent  by  Sarah  Schrank  September  1959 


S^     JACK  KEROUAC  ; 

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bibloofth.              '/T'l\\ 
ASIGKEIBOOK    •    Corap 

ete  and  Unabridr^ej  y 

SQUARESVILLE  U.S.A. 
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vs 


Jess 

Tricky  Cad:  Case  I/,  1958, 
colored  newspaper,  clear 
plastic  wrap,  and  black  tape 
on  paperboard 


culture  reconfigured  into  two-dimensional  col- 
lages or  three-dimensional  assemblages.  These 
artists  embraced  the  messy  and  the  combinative, 
in  defiance  of  the  clean,  streamlined  aesthetic 
of  the  day. 

While  originating  in  New  York,  Beat 
culture  soon  migrated  westward — its  pilgrimage 
mythically  recounted  by  Jack  Kerouac  in  the  Beat 
classic  On  the  Road  (1957) — and  took  root  in 
California.  It  blossomed  most  notably  in  the 
communities  of  North  Beach  in  San  Francisco, 
and  Venice,  Topanga,  and  Hermosa  Beach  in 
Southern  California.  Media  coverage  such  as 
Life  magazine's  article  "Squaresville  U.S.A.  vs. 
Beatsville"  reinforced  the  connection  between 
California  and  the  Beats."'  This  piece  compared 
the  life  of  a  middle-American  family  in 
Hutchinson,  Kansas,  to  that  of  a  Beat  family 
in  Venice,  California.  Here,  and  in  numerous 
other  examples  in  the  popular  media,  the  Beats 
were  recast  as  "beatniks,"  with  the  Russian 
suffix  adding  Soviet  Communist  associations. 
Whereas  the  Beats  espoused  serious  counter- 
cultural  convictions  that  were  potentially 
threatening,  the  media's  "beatniks"  were  vacuous, 
comical  posers  and  could  therefore  be  more 


easily  dismissed.  They  were  disparaged  as  ne'er- 
do-wells  lazing  around  in  squalid  apartments, 
antithetical  to  upstanding  Americans  who 
maintained  cleanliness  and  order  in  their  new 
appliance-  and  gadget-filled  ranch  houses. 
Emphasizing  this  point  of  difference,  one 
caption  in  "Squaresville  U.S.A.  vs.  Beatsville" 
described  a  typical  Beat  scene  as  follows:  "A 
seedy-looking  fellow  is  sitting  in  an  old  bathtub 
reading  poetry  while  an  artist  squats  nearby 
painting  garbage  cans."" 

The  Beats  were  also  criticized  for  challeng- 
ing traditional  gender  roles,  then  being  anxiously 
reasserted  in  American  culture  following  their 
destabilization  on  the  home  front  during  the 
war.  Another  Life  article  disdainfully  relayed 
"a  North  Beach  maxim, . . .  the  mature  bohemian 
is  one  whose  woman  works  full  time,"  adding 
that  "the  'chicks'  who  are  willing  to  support  a 
whiskery  male  are  often  middle-aged  and  fat."" 
Playboy  magazine  also  criticized  Beat  males  for 
not  being  "real  men"  (in  other  words,  capable  of 
making  money  and  of  keeping  their  women  in 
line),  even  while  praising  them  on  another  level 
as  fellow  social  rebels." 


California  Abstract  Expressionism,  at  the  Santa  Monica  Pier  merry-go-round.  This  show  marl<s  the  emergence  of  a  bohemian  arts  community  in  Los  flngeles.  The  artists  Wallace  Berman,  Edward  Kienholz,  and 


Wallace  Berman  being 
arrested  at  Ferus  Gallery, 
Los  Angeles,  1957,  Lent  by 
Charles  Bnttm  and  Craig  Krul 
Gallery,  Santa  Monica 


Jay  DeFeo 

Thejewel.  1959, 


There  was,  however,  an  element  of 
attraction  in  the  country's  seemingly  negative 
preoccupation  with  beatniks.  Tour  buses  brought 
curious  visitors  to  North  Beach  and  Venice, 
affording  them  the  opportunity  to  observe  beat- 
niks in  their  "natural  habitat."  Artists  were  sub- 
jects of  particular  interest.  Female  Beat  painters 
Jay  DeFeo  and  Joan  Brown,  who  were  profiled 
in  women's  magazines  such  as  Cosmopolitan  and 
Glamour,  received  sympathetic  treatment  in  the 
press,  while  male  artists  often  were  given  less 
flattering  coverage.  A  1958  Look  magazine  article 
entitled  "The  Bored,  the  Bearded,  and  the  Beat" 
reduced  Wallace  Berman — an  artistic  linchpin 
of  the  California  Beat  community — to  a  carica- 
ture, misquoting  his  philosophy  "Art  is  Love  is 
God"  as  "Man,  art  is  cool,  and  cool  is  every- 
thing."" Still,  as  artist  Wally  Hedrick  has  recalled, 
the  mystique  that  surrounded  Beat  artists  could 
draw  considerable  interest  from  onlookers. 
He  remembers  one  bar  in  North  Beach  that 
hired  a  painter  to  make  art  on  the  premises  to 
the  sound  of  jazz  music:  "That  was  his  job . . . 
The  guy  would  make  four  or  five  paintings  in 
an  evening.'"" 

While  Beat  artists  fostered  and  cashed  in 
on  this  mystique  at  times — Hedrick  admits  that 
he,  too,  was  briefly  employed  making  abstract 
art  in  a  coffee-shop  window"' — many  created 
works  that  offered  pointed  statements  protesting 
society's  perceived  ills,  including  sexual  repres- 
siveness, empty  consumerism,  and  an  ethos  of 
conformity.  The  assemblages  of  Bruce  Conner — 
for  example,  his  abstract  portrait  of  Beat  poet 
Allen  Ginsberg — and  the  collages  of  Jess  were 
some  of  the  many  Beat  works  created  from 
mainstream  society's  soiled,  discarded  goods, 
combined  and  reconstituted  in  a  spirit  that 
recalled  Rodia's  eclectic  Watts  Towers. 


illy  HI  Bengston,  among  others,  often  worked  with  found  objects  and  the  materials  of  the  postwar  era,  including  plastics  and  car  paint.     >    19  5  6     >    The  Federal  Interstate  Highway  fict  encourages  suburbaniza 


Walloce  Berman 

Semina.  1955-64, 
hand-printed  magazine 


Wallace  Berman 

Untitled  (Jazz  Drawing  of 
SlimGaillard),  c.  1940,  pencil 


Palmer  Schoppe 

Drum,  Trombone,  and  Bass, 
1942,  gouache  and  pencil  on 
paper 


d-f 

Souvenir  photos  and 
souvenir  photo  folios  from 
Los  Angeles-area  jazz  clubs, 
c.  1940s,  LentbyJimHeiman 
and  John  Tolbert 


SEMINA 


PEYOTE  POEM 


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The  art  ofWallace  Berman  also  embodies 
the  Beat  aesthetic  of  heterogeneity  and  impurity. 
Berman's  work  on  exhibition  at  Ferus  Gallery 
in  Los  Angeles  in  1957  was  deemed  offensive 
enough  to  warrant  his  arrest  and  conviction  on 
an  obscenity  charge,  compelling  him  to  leave 
Los  Angeles  for  the  Bay  Area.  His  publication, 
Semina,  which  included  poetry,  prose,  drawings, 
and  photographs  printed  on  nonuniform, 
unbound  sheets  of  paper,  directly  communicated 
this  nonconformist  sensibility.  The  first  of  its 
nine  issues  was  published  in  1955,  the  same  year 
that  Disneyland  opened  to  the  public,  and 
Semina  offered  a  powerful  counterstatement 
indeed  to  this  icon  of  California  mainstream  cul- 
ture. Yet  whereas  Disneyland  reached  millions, 
Berman's  dissenting  voice  spoke  only  to  a  small 
underground  community  of  creative  figures 
who  congregated  in  alternative  spaces  in  North 
Beach  such  as  King  Ubu  Gallery  (later  the  6 
Gallery,  where  Ginsberg  first  recited  Howl)  and 
City  Lights  bookstore. 

One  of  the  primary  means  by  which  the 
Beats  and  other  cultural  dissidents  in  California 
asserted  their  opposition  to  the  dominant 
mainstream  was  by  valorizing  aspects  of  society 
that  commonly  had  been  denigrated  or  margin- 
alized, such  as  black  jazz  culture.  This  subculture 
had  existed  in  Los  Angeles  and  the  Bay  Area 
since  the  1920s,  but  it  burgeoned  during  and  after 
the  war  as  the  state's  African  American  commu- 
nities mushroomed.  Berman  was  one  of  the 
most  avid  devotees  among  the  Beats.  Sporting 
a  zoot  suit  and  forming  friendships  with  local 
jazz  luminaries,  Berman,  in  his  youth,  had  been  a 
fixture  in  the  many  jazz  clubs  then  thriving  along 
Central  Avenue  in  South  Central  Los  Angeles. 
Some  of  his  first  works  were  surrealistic  drawings 
of  jazz  figures  (one  of  which  became  the  cover 
design  for  a  bebop  album )."' 


lile  increasing  segregation,  due  to  white  flight  from  the  center  of  U.S.  cities.  This  act  has  a  profound  Impact  on  California's  cities,  particularly  Los  flngeles.     >    Los  fingeles  repeals  Its  140-foot  buildlng-helght 


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nit:  immediately  skyscrapers  begin  to  go  up.     >     19  5  7     >    Poet  flllen  Ginsberg  and  publisher  Lawrence  Ferllnghetti  achieve  prominence  after  Ginsberg's  Howl  and  Other  Poems  is  seized  by  San  Francisco  po 


thorities.  The  obscenity  trial  that  follows  brings  widespread  support  to  the  Beats.     >    Soviet  Union  launches  Sputnik,  the  first  orbiting  space  satellite,  prompting  Cold  War  fears  that  fuel  the  arms  race   By  1958  a 


James  Weeks 

Two  Musicians,  1960,  oil 


David  Park 

Rehearsal,  c.  1949-50,  oil  on 


William  Claxton 

Stan  Getz,  Hollywood,  1954, 
gelatin-silver  print 


Peter  Voulkos 

Camelback  Mountain,  1959, 
stoneware  with  slip,  glazed 
and  gas  fired 


Other  Beats  also  embraced  black  jazz 
culture,  as  much  for  its  outsider  status  as  for  its 
ethos  of  coolness  and  spontaneity.  This  allegiance 
was  not  lost  on  the  mainstream  media,  which 
associated  the  Beats  derisively  with  various  facets 
of  black  culture.  In  an  illustration  for  another 
Life  magazine  article  bashing  the  Beats,  a  pros- 
trate, "shabby"  beatnik  and  his  female  compan- 
ion are  surrounded  by  posters  from  jazz  concerts, 
a  Miles  Davis  album,  and  a  set  of  bongo  drums." 
For  the  mainstream  press,  linking  the  Beats  with 
black  culture  demonstrated  the  alarming  extent 
to  which  the  Beat  community  had  strayed  from 
(white)  middle-class  norms. 

Aside  from  the  Beats,  there  were  other 
postwar  artists  with  an  avid  interest  in  jazz. 
Among  them  were  the  Abstract  Expressionist 
sculptors  clustered  around  master  ceramist  Peter 
Voulkos,  who  taught  first  at  the  Los  Angeles 
County  Art  Institute  (now  Otis  College  of  Art  and 
Design)  from  1954  to  1959,  then  at  the  University 
of  California,  Berkeley,  until  1985.  These  creators 
of  unconventional,  free-form  sculptures  in 
ceramic  shared  many  countercultural  interests 
with  the  Beats,  including  a  predilection  for  the 
syncopated  and  improvisational  nature  of  jazz. 
Several  of  the  Bay  Area  Figurative  painters  were 
also  jazz  enthusiasts.  In  Rehearsal,  David  Park 
portrays  the  California  School  of  Fine  Arts  all- 
white  Studio  13  Jazz  Band,  in  which  he  played 
piano  and  the  school's  director,  Douglas  MacAgy, 
occasionally  played  drums.  James  Weeks  turned 
instead  to  black  jazz,  depicting  the  Bay  Area's 
"kings  of  bebop"  in  his  vibrant  portrait  Two 
Musicians.^"  Stressing  the  coolness  and  virility  of 
his  subjects  while  blocking  out  individualizing 
facial  features.  Weeks  universalized  these  musi- 
cians in  paying  homage  to  them. 

A  number  of  creative  figures  in  California, 
including  many  of  those  aligned  with  the  coun- 
terculture, explored  aspects  of  spirituality  during 


ng  of  six  Hercules  underground  missile  sites  guards  Los  flngeles.     >    Los  Angeles  bans  the  use  of  residential  backyard  incinerators  due  to  the  growing  smog  problem.     >    Jack  Kerouac  publishes  On  the  Rosd, 


these  years.  While  Los  Angeles  painter  Rico 
Lebrun  turned  to  the  New  Testament  in  darkly 
expressionistic  works  inspired  by  the  atrocities 
of  the  war,  a  far  greater  number  of  postwar 
figures  took  an  avid  interest  in  non-Western 
religions.  This  trend  was  fueled  by  a  growing 
popular  fascination  in  the  United  States  with 
Zen  Buddhism,  as  distilled  by  such  proponents 
in  the  West  as  Alan  Watts,  a  fixture  in  the 
San  Francisco  Beat  community.  The  minimalistic 
abstractions  of  John  McLaughlin  were  strongly 
informed  by  Zen  precepts  as  interpreted  in 
Southern  California.  An  Asian-art  dealer  who 
had  spent  two  years  in  Japan  in  the  1930s  before 
becoming  an  artist,  McLaughlin  sought  a  balance 
in  his  paintings  that  would  evoke  a  meditative 
calm  in  the  viewer. 


fthe  cornerstones  of  the  Beat  arts  and  literature  movement.   >    In  San  Francisco  Helen  ftdams  founds  the  Maidens,  a  Beat  poetry  and  performance  group  that  includes  artists  such  as  Jess  and  Robert  Duncan 


Rico  Lebrun 

The  Magdalene,  1950, 
tempera  on  Masonite 


John  Mason 

Sculpture  [Desert  Cross], 
1963,  stoneware,  glazed 


Matsumi  Konemitsu 

Zen  Blue,  1961,  lithograph 


John  McLaughlin 

Untitled,  1952,  oil  and 
on  fiberboard 


Minor  White 

Sun  in  Rock  (San  Mateo 
County,  California),  1947, 
gelatm-silver  print 


Ferus  Gallery  opens  In  Los  flngeles  in  March.  Wallace  Berman  is  arrested  there  in  June  at  his  first  public  show  for  allegedly  exhibiting  pornography.     >     19  5  8     >    Hula  hoops  go  on  sale  for  three  dollars  each  in  South 


Wolfgang  Paalen 

Messengers  from  the  Three 
Poles,  1949,  oil  on  canvas 


19  5  9     >    fl  former  Beat  hangout,  the  Gas  House  in  Venice  Beach,  becomes  the  center  of  controversy  when  the  owner  applies  for  a  cafe  license,  and  older  Beats  are  pitted  against  beatniks  ar 


Gordon  Onslow  Ford 

Fragment  of  an  Endless  (II), 
1962,  casein  on  wrinkled 
paper 


Lee  Mulllcon 

Space,  1951,  oil  on  canvas 


A  number  of  creative  figures  were  more 
eclectic  or  generalized  in  their  spiritual  affinities. 
The  artists  who  constituted  the  Bay  Area-based 
group  Dynaton  (derived  from  the  Greek  word 
dyn,  which  they  translated  as  "the  possible") — 
Gordon  Onslow  Ford,  Wolfgang  Paalen,  and 
Lee  Mullican — incorporated  aspects  of  myriad 
religions  and  philosophies  in  their  work.  Wh 
Onslow  Ford's  foremost  interest  was  in  Zen  and 
Paalen's  was  in  Native  American  spiritualism, 
all  three  sought  to  visualize  an  inclusive  cosmic 
reality  by  means  of  spiritual  abstract  paintin 
Another  abstractionist  of  the  period  with  an 
interest  in  spirituality  was  avant-garde  filmmaker 
and  painter  Oskar  Fischinger.  A  German  emigre 
who  had  initially  come  to  Hollywood  in  1936  to 
work  for  Paramount  Pictures,  Fischinger  quickly 
discovered  that  his  spiritual  and  aesthetic  orien- 
tation rendered  him  ill  suited  to  the  industry. 
In  such  experimental  films  as  Radio  Dynamics 
(regarded  as  his  most  significant  work), 
Fischinger  implicitly  decried  commercial  imagery 
in  favor  of  abstract  forms  that  attempted  to 
visually  approximate  music. 

For  some  artists  in  California,  alternative 
spiritual  traditions  that  existed  apart  from 


tourists.     >    The  Barbie  doll  is  introduced  by  Mattel  of  El  Segundo,  California.     >    The  movie  Cidget,  starring  Sandra  Dee,  popularizes  the  California  beach/surfer  image. 


Oskar  FIschinger 

Radio  Dynamics,  1943,  stills 
from  16  mm  film 


organized  Western  religion  offered  a  means  of 
countering  the  perceived  soullessness  of  centrist 
middle-class  culture.  California,  viewed  as  a 
haven  for  spiritual  exploration  since  the  nine- 
teenth century,  was  an  apt  place  to  make  such 
nonconformist  assertions,  even  while  the  state 
embodied  for  so  many  the  very  values  being 
challenged.  By  i960  these  previously  marginal- 
ized interests  began  to  permeate  the  mainstream, 
voiced  in  large  part  by  the  diverse  body  of  men 
and  women  afforded  educational  opportunities 
by  the  1944  GI  Bill  of  Rights.^'  Accordingly  in 
the  turbulent  years  that  followed,  an  image  of 
unconventionality  and  dissent  superseded  the  far 
more  placid,  conformist  vision  of  postwar  subur- 
ban life  that,  for  a  time,  had  defined  California 
for  the  nation  and  the  world. 


1  Josh  Sides,  "Battle  on  the  Home  Front: 
African  American  Shipyard  Worl<.ers  in  WWII 
Los  Angeles,"  California  History  yi  (fall  1996): 
3.  251-63- 

2  In  the  1950s  the  Bracero  program  over- 
lapped with  Operation  Wetback,  the  repatria- 
tion of  undocumented  workers. 

J  This  federal  regulation,  officially  titled 
General  Limitation  Order  L-85,  went  into 
effect  in  1942  and  significantly  limited  the 
amount  and  type  of  materials  available  to 
civilian  designers. 

4  This  advertisement  appeared  in  the 
New  Yorker,  October  1943, 13. 

5  The  term  pachuco  originated  with  a  group 
of  Mexican  American  youths  called  Chuco 
in  El  Paso,  Texas.  Pachuco  referred  to  both 
the  youths  and  the  argot  they  spoke. 

See  Dan  Luckenbill,  The  Pachuco  Era,  e.\h. 
cat..  University  of  California,  Los  Angeles, 
University  Research  Library,  Department 
of  Special  Collections  (Los  Angeles:  Regents 
of  the  University  of  California,  1990),  3. 
For  a  key  social  critique  of  the  pachuco  from 
a  Mexican  perspective,  see  "The  Pachuco 
and  Other  Extremes,"  in  Octavio  Paz, 
The  Labyrinth  of  Solitude  (\9^v,  reprint. 
New  York:  Grove  Press,  1985),  9-28. 

6  Eric  Lott,  "The  Whiteness  of  Film  Noir," 
American  Literary  History  g,  no.  3  (fall  1997): 
551- 

7  Ibid. 

8  Ibid.,  545.  Lott  references,  for  example,  "the 
black,  Asian,  and  Mexican  urbanscapes  and 
underworlds  of  [Edward]  Dmytryk's  Murder, 
My  Sweet,  The  Lady  from  Shanghai,  The 
Reckless  Moment,  Rudolph  Mate's  D.O.A. 
(1950),  [and  Orson]  Welles's  Touch  of  Evil 
(1958) . . .  the  self-conscious  endpoint  of  noir 
and  its  racial  tropes." 

»  The  single  exhibition  was  called  The 
Indefinite  Period  (1942),  a  traveling  show 
organized  by  the  Institute  of  Modern  Art  in 
Boston.  Los  Angeles  did  not  host  another 
exhibition  on  this  subject  until  1953.  On 
the  presentation  and  collecting  of  Mexican 
art  in  Los  Angeles  in  the  1920s  and  1930s, 
see  Margarita  Nieto,  "Mexican  Art  and 
Los  Angeles,  1920-1940,"  in  On  the  Edge  of 
America:  California  Modernist  Art,  1900-1950, 
ed.  Paul  Karlstrom  (Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles: 
University  of  California  Press,  1996),  134. 
For  an  analysis  of  wartime  anti-Mexican 
sentiment  in  light  of  the  interest  in  Latin 
American  art  before  the  war,  see  Holly  Barnet- 
Sanchez,  "The  Necessity  of  Pre-Columbian 
Art  in  the  United  States:  Appropriations 
and  Transformations  of  Heritage,  1933-1945," 
in  Collecting  the  Pre-Columbian  Past:  A 
Symposium  at  Dumbarton  Oaks,  6th  and  jth 
October  1990,  ed.  Elizabeth  Hill  Boon 
(Washington,  D.C.:  Dumbarton  Oaks 
Research  Library  and  Collection,  1993), 
177-207. 

10  Brian  Niiya,  "Internment  Chronology,"  in 
The  View  from  Within:  Japanese  American  Art 
from  the  Internment  Camps,  1942-1945, 

exh.  cat.  (Los  Angeles:  Japanese  American 
National  Museum,  ucla  Wight  Art  Gallery, 
and  UCLA  Asian  American  Studies  Center, 
1992),  61. 

11  Karin  M.  Higa,  "The  View  from  Within," 
in  The  View  from  Within,  39. 

12  The  title  of  this  booklet  echoes  a  racist 
statement  made  by  U.S.  Gen.  John  DeWitt, 
commander  of  the  Western  Defense 


Command:  "A  Jap's  a  Jap."  See  Karin  Higa 
and  Tim  B.  Wride,  "Manzanar  Inside  and 
Out:  Photo  Documentation  of  the  Japanese 
Wartime  Incarceration,"  in  Reading 
California:  Art,  Image,  and  Identity,  1900- 
2000,  ed.  Stephanie  Barron,  Sheri  Bernstein, 
and  Ilene  Susan  Fort  (Los  Angeles: 
Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art  in 
association  with  University  of  California 
Press,  Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles,  2000). 

13  Ibid. 

14  See  Lynn  Spigel,  Make  Room  for  TV: 
Television  and  the  Family  Ideal  in  Postwar 
America  (Chicago:  University  of  Chicago 
Press,  1992). 

15  Among  the  areas  affected  were  Santa  Clara 
County,  Marin  County,  Sonoma  County, 
and  Walnut  Creek.  The  population  of  Santa 
Clara  Valley,  once  a  .strictly  agricultural  area, 
nearly  tripled  between  1940  and  1970,  whereas 
the  populations  of  the  major  Bay  Area  cities, 
San  Francisco  and  Oakland,  declined.  See 
Charles  Wollenberg,  Golden  Gate  Metropolis: 
Perspectives  on  Bay  Area  History  (Berkeley 
and  Los  Angeles:  University  of  California 
Press,  1985),  258. 

li  L.A.  Examiner,  January  2, 1957;  Life,  March 
17, 1952. 

17  See  Clifford  E.  Clark  Jr.,  "Ranch-House 
Suburbia:  Ideals  and  Realities,"  in  Recasting 
America:  Culture  and  Politics  in  the  Age  of  the 
Cold  War,  ed.  Lary  May  (Chicago:  University 
of  Chicago  Press,  1989),  177. 

18  For  connections  between  postwar  fashion 
and  architecture,  see  "California's  Bold  Look: 
It  Is  New,  Bright  and  Bound  to  Be  Seen  All 
over  the  U.S.,"  Life^  June  14, 1954.  The  article 
is  illustrated  by  a  photograph  of  a  California 
sportswear  model  standing  in  front  of  Case 
Study  House  #8,  the  Fames  House. 

l»  This  image  appeared  in  The  San  Francisco 
Book,  photographs  by  Max  Yavno,  text  by 
Herb  Caen  (Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin 
with  the  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  1948). 
Yavno  published  an  accompanying  book, 
The  Los  Angeles  Book,  text  by  Lee  Shippey 
(Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin  with  the  Riverside 
Press,  Cambridge,  1950). 

20  See  Kevin  Starr,  "The  Case  Study  House 
Program  and  the  Impending  Future:  Some 
Regional  Considerations,"  in  Blueprints  for 
Modern  Living:  History  and  Legacy  of  the  Case 
Study  Houses,  exh.  cat.  (Los  Angeles:  Museum 
of  Contemporary  Art  in  association  with 
MIT  Press,  Cambridge,  1989),  131-43. 

21  "Los  Angeles:  The  Promised  Land,"  Sepia, 
August  1959, 16. 

22  "Casual  Elegance  in  California,"  Ebony, 
Dec.  1957. 

23  See  the  New  York-based  African  American 
publication  Our  World.  "Hurray  for 

Los  Angeles,"  Our  World,  September  1949. 

24  See  Don  Parson,  "'This  Modern  Marvel': 
Bunker  Hill,  Chavez  Ravine,  and  the  Politics 
of  Modernism  in  Los  Angeles,"  Southern 
California  Quarterly  7^,  no.  34  (fall/winter 
1993)- 

25  A  Decent  Home:  An  American  Right, 
5th,  6th,  and  yth  Consolidated  Report 

( Los  Angeles:  Housing  Authority  of  the  City 
of  Los  Angeles,  n.d.  [1945-49]),  16. 

26  See  Thomas  S.  Hines,  "The  Battle  of 
Chavez  Ravine;  Field  of  Dreams,"  Los  Angeles 
Times,  April  20, 1997. 

27  Charles  Champlin,  "Los  Angeles  in  a  New 
Image:  Remodeled  Landscape,  Redesigned 


Skyline,"  Life,  June  20,  i960, 79. 

28  Don  Normark,  Chdvez  Ravine,  1949:  A 
Los  Angeles  Story  (San  Francisco:  Chronicle 
Books,  1999),  11. 

29  See  Sarah  Schrank,  "Picturing  Watts 
Towers,"  in  Reading  California.  See  also 
Bud  Goldstone  and  Arloa  Paquin  Goldstone, 
The  Los  Angeles  Watts  Towers  (Los  Angeles: 
Getty  Conservation  In.stitute  and  J.  Paul 
Getty  Museum,  1997),  and  Richard  Candida 
Smith,  "The  Elusive  Quest  of  the  Moderns," 
in  Karlstrom,  On  the  Edge  of  America,  21-38. 

30  On  Watts  Towers  in  the  context  of  the 
California  assemblage  movement,  see 
Thomas  Crow,  The  Rise  of  the  Sixties: 
American  and  European  Art  in  the  Era  of 
Dissent  (New  York:  Harry  N.  Abrams,  1997), 
24-25,  27. 

31  See  Sarah  Schrank,  "Envisioning 

Los  Angeles:  Civic  Culture,  Public  Art,  and 
the  All-City  Outdoor  Art  Festivals"  (paper 
delivered  at  American  Studies  Association 
conference,  Seattle,  Washington,  November 
20, 1998),  7,  originally  quoted  in  Arthur 
MilHer,  "Reaction  and  Censorship  in 
Los  Angeles,"  Art  Digest,  November  15, 1951,  9. 
Schrank's  insights  into  the  political  under- 
pinnings of  debates  involving  the  landscape 
in  postwar  Los  Angeles  were  formative  in 
the  writing  of  this  essay. 

32  Peter  Plagens,  Sunshine  Muse:  Art  on  the 
West  Coast  (1974;  reprint,  Berkeley  and 
Los  Angeles:  University  of  California  Press, 
1999).  23- 

33  "Realism  with  Reverence,"  Time,  June  4, 
1951,69. 

34  See  Jonathan  Spaulding,  "Yosemite  and 
Ansel  Adams:  Art,  Commerce,  and  Western 
Tourism,"  Pacific  Historical  Review  65,  no.  4 
(November  1996):  615-40. 

35  On  Disneyland,  see  John  M.  Findlay, 
Magic  Lands:  Western  Cityscapes  and 
American  Culture  after  1940  (Berkeley  and 
Los  Angeles:  University  of  California  Press, 
1992).  See  also  Karal  Ann  Marling,  ed.. 
Designing  Disney's  Theme  Parks:  The 
Architecture  of  Reassurance  (Montreal: 
Canadian  Centre  for  Architecture,  1997;  dis- 
tributed in  U.S.  by  Flammarion,  New  York). 

36  Jonathan  Fineberg,  Art  since  1940: 
Strategies  of  Being  (New  York:  Harry  N. 
Abrams,  1995),  242.  Quoting  the  artist  in 
David  Hockney  by  David  Hockney  (New  York: 
Harry  N.  Abrams,  1977),  93. 

37  On  the  aesthetic  achievements  and  evolu- 
tion of  Bay  Area  Figurative  art,  see  Caroline 
A.  Jones,  Bay  Area  Figurative  Art:  1950-1965, 
exh.  cat.  (San  Francisco:  San  Francisco 
Museum  of  Modern  Art  in  association  with 
University  of  California  Press,  Berkeley  and 
Los  Angeles,  1990). 

38  David  McCarthy,  "Social  Nudism, 
Masculinity,  and  the  Male  Nude  in  the  Work 
of  William  Theo  Brown  and  Wynn 
Chamberlain  in  the  1960s,"  Archives  of 
American  Arf  38,  nos.  1/2  (1998):  28. 

39  Susan  Ohmer,  "Female  Spectatorship  and 
Women's  Magazines:  Hollywood,  Good 
Housekeeping,  and  World  War  II,"  The  Velvet 
Light  Trap  25  (spring  1990):  62. 

40  Ibid. 

41  Life,  September  21, 1959,  31-37. 

42  Ibid. 

43  Paul  O'Neil,  "The  Only  Rebellion  Around: 
But  the  Shabby  Beats  Bungle  the  Job  in 
Arguing,  Sulking,  and  Bad  Poetry,"  Life,  Nov. 


30, 1959, 114.  For  further  discussion  of  the 
Beats  in  the  context  of  the  crisis  of  masculin 
ity  in  the  United  States  in  the  1950s,  see 
Barbara  Ehrenreich,  The  Hearts  of  Men: 
American  Dreams  and  the  Flight  from 
Commitment  (Garden  City,  N.Y.:  Anchor 
Press/Doubleday,  1983),  53-54- 

44  See  Hugh  Hefner,  "The  Playboy 
Philosophy,"  Playboy,  January  1963,  41. 

45  George  Leonard,  "The  Bored,  the  Bearded 
and  the  Beat,"  Look,  August  19, 1958. 

46  Wally  Hedrick  interview  no.  1,  Archives 
of  American  Art,  quoted  in  Richard  Candida 
Smith,  Utopia  and  Dissent:  Art,  Poetry, 

and  Politics  in  California  (Berkeley  and 
Los  Angeles:  University  of  California  Press, 
1995).  168.  There  was  a  widespread  Beat  prac- 
tice of  painting  and  reading  poetry  to  jazz. 

47  Ibid. 

48  Rebecca  Solnit,  "Heretical  Constellations: 
Notes  on  California,  1946-1961,"  in  Lisa 
Phillips,  Beat  Culture  and  the  New  America: 
1950-1965,  exh.  cat.  (New  York:  Whitney 
Museum  of  American  Art  in  association  with 
Flammarion,  Paris,  1996),  71. 

49  O'Neil,  "The  Only  Rebellion  Around." 

50  Jones,  Bay  Area  Figurative  Art,  67. 

51  On  the  impact  of  the  GI  Bill  on  the  arts 
in  California,  see  Candida  Smith,  Utopia 
and  Dissent,  67-89. 


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TREMORS  IN   PARADISE    1960-1980 


Howard  N.  Fox 


Mike  Mandel  and 
Larry  Sultan 

Set-up  for  Oranges  on  Fire, 
1975,  printed  1999, 
chromogenic  development 
print 


Time  magazine,  November  7, 
1969,  foldout  cover  illustra- 
tion by  Milton  Closer 


During  the  1960s  and  1970s,  the  mythology  of  California  shifted  like  a 
tectonic  plate,  nudging  popular  conceptions  out  of  place  and  occasionally 
thrusting  new  ones  suddenly  and  violently  into  national  awareness. 

The  commonplace  notion  of  Southern  Cahfornia 
in  the  1950s,  for  example,  relied  upon  images  of 
Tinseltown,  freeways,  and  a  sprawling,  homoge- 
nous suburbia,  but  by  1965  the  Watts  rebellion 
reminded  the  country  that  the  region's  capital, 
Los  Angeles,  suffered  the  very  real  urban  ills  of 
other  American  cities.  Similarly,  the  Bay  Area 
had  been  nationally  profiled  as  a  bastion  of  old 
money  and  high  culture  leavened  with  an  arty 
Beat  scene.  However,  events  such  as  the  founding 
of  the  Free  Speech  Movement  on  the  campus  of 
the  University  of  California,  Berkeley,  in  1964; 
the  coalescing  of  so-called  hippie  culture  around 
the  Haight-Ashbury  district  of  San  Francisco  in 
about  1965;  and  the  formation  of  the  revolution- 
ary Black  Panther  party  in  Oakland  in  1966 
revealed  an  epicenter  of  potent  new  social  forces 
that  ultimately  catalyzed  profound  changes  in 
the  nation  and  the  world.  Of  course,  the  revolu- 
tionary new  spirit — which  animated  the  youth 


counterculture,  inspired  liberationist  causes 
ranging  from  Chicanismo  and  Black  Pride  to 
feminism,  and  affected  world  events  and  history 
through  the  civil  rights  struggles  and  the  anti- 
Vietnam  War  movement — was  not  unique  to 
California.  Much  of  its  drive,  however,  originated 
in  California  and  found  its  most  articulate 
expression  there. 

On  November  7, 1969,  Time  magazine 
ran  a  cover  story  that  reiterated  the  familiar 
litany  of  Californiana — enumerating  its  distinc- 
tive clothing,  architecture  and  arts,  business 
ventures,  table  wines,  leisure  styles,  cults,  think 
tanks,  parklands,  and  Disneyland — opining 
that  "California  people  have  created  their  own 
atmosphere,  like  astronauts."  Yet  Time  concluded 
that  California  "is  not  really  so  different  from 
the  rest  of  the  U.S.  as  it  seems:  that  it  is,  in  fact, 
a  microcosm  of  modern  American  life,  with 
all  its  problems  and  promises — only  vastly 
exaggerated."  Clearly,  the  mythic  exoticism  of 
California  had  not  worn  off  in  the  popular 
imagination,  but  it  was  now  complicated  and 
enriched  with  a  certain  realism.  In  Time's  ring- 
ing prophecy,  California  emerged  as  "the  mirror 
of  America  as  it  will  become,  or  at  least  as  the 
hothouse  for  its  most  rousing  fads,  fashions, 
trends  and  ideas."' 

Not  surprisingly,  the  art  that  engaged 
these  concerns  throughout  the  period  reflected 
the  full  range  and  complexity  of  life  in 
California.  The  landscape  and  nature-oriented 
tradition  continued  with  some  vitality,  but 
much  of  the  work  reveals  that  the  status  of 
the  Edenic  myth  was  shifting  along  a  cultural 
fault  line,  redefining  the  relationship  between 
people  and  nature. 

Landscape  artists  worked  in  an  array  of 
styles  that  ranged  from  Llyn  Foulkes's  Death 
Valley,  U.S.A.,  which  combines  aspects  of  Pop  art 
and  Surrealism,  to  Richard  Diebenkorn's  highly 


19  6  0     >    House  Un-fimerican  ftctivities  Committee  holds  hearings  In  the  Bay  Hrea  to  investigate  Communist  activities,  fl  thousand  UC  Berl^eley  students  protest  at  San  Francisco's  city  hall.  The  first  day  oft 


I 


abstracted  landscapes,  such  as  Ocean  Park  Series 
#49.  The  purple  mountains'  majesty  revered  by 
plein  air  painters  in  previous  decades  could  still 
be  found  in  nature  but,  by  the  1960s,  was  not 
much  found  on  canvas. 

Such  depictions  as  there  were  of  wild 
California  were  apt  to  be  about  the  encroachment 
of  people  into  the  wilderness.  Roger  Minick's 
photograph  Woman  with  Scarf  at  Inspiration 
Point,  Yosemite  National  Park,  foregrounds  the 
magnificent  vista  with  an  intervening  close  view 
of  a  tourist  seen  from  the  back.  With  only  her 
flimsy  souvenir  scarf  to  protect  her  from  the 
ravages  of  the  untamed  elements,  she  seems  an 
interloper.  Robert  Dawson's  Untitled  #1,  from  his 
Mono  Lake  series,  resembles  an  eerie  Martian 
landscape  in  a  science  fiction  movie.  The  view  is 
somewhat  unnatural,  considering  that  Mono 
Lake,  in  Northern  California,  was  drained  to 
irrigate  the  deserts  of  Southern  California,  and 
the  strange  rock  formations  are  the  visible  end 
result  of  human  intervention. 

The  1960s  saw  the  advent  of  what  have 
come  to  be  called  earthworks  or  land  projects — 
artworks  created  by  digging  into  the  land, 
sculpting  it  with  bulldozers,  placing  something 
on  it,  or  otherwise  engaging  the  features  and 
properties  of  a  specific  site.  A  fundamental 
unnaturalness,  however,  is  implicit  in  the  very 
vocabulary  of  such  projects.  One  of  the  most 
beautiful  land  projects,  Running  Fence,  was 
conceived  and  organized  by  the  New  York-based 
collaborative  team  of  Christo  and  his  wife, 
Jeanne-Claude.  Running  Fence  was  a  24-niile- 
long,  18-foot-high  swath  of  nylon  suspended 
along  a  system  of  steel  cables  like  an  immense 
curtain.  It  zigzagged  across  rolling  pastures  from 
Meacham  Hill,  near  Petaluma,  westward  to 
Bodega  Bay,  where  it  dipped  into  the  surf  The 
project  was  visited  by  thousands  and  was  copi- 
ously documented  in  film,  video,  photography. 


imonstration  is  peaceful   On  the  second  day,  police  appear  with  billy  clubs  and  turn  fire  hoses  on  the  students.  This  event  marks  the  beginning  of  political  activism  for  many  participants.    >    The  execution  of  Caryl 


Llyn  Foulkes 

Death  Valley,  U.S.A.,  1963, 


I  on  canvas 


Richard  Diebenkorn 

Ocean  Park  Series  "49,  1972, 
oil  on  canvas 


Roger  Minick 

Moman  with  Scarf  at 
Inspiratior)  Point,  Yosemite 
National  Park,  1980, 
dye-coupler  print 


Jack  Welpott 

The  journey— Pescadero 
Creek,  1966,  gelatin-silver 


Robert  Dawson 

Untitled 'I,  1979,  fron 
Mono  Lake  series,  gelo 
silver  print 


;hessman,  who  claimed  his  confession  to  rape  and  robbery  was  coerced  by  police,  outrages  foes  of  capital  punishment  and  inspires  artworks  such  as  Ed  Kienholz's  The  Psycho-Vendettd  Cdse.     >     19  61 


Christo  and  Jeanne-Claude 

Running  Fence,  Sonoma  and 
Marin  Counties,  California, 
1972-76,  1976,  photo 
documentation  of  installation 


Ben  Sakoguchi 

Capitalist  Art  Brand.  1975-81 
acrylic  on  canvas 


Ansel  Adams 

Yosemite  Valley,  from 
Inspiration  Point,  Yosemite 
National  Park,  1969, 
photo-offset  print  on  metal 
container 


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and  books.  (The  elaborate  marketing  of  fence- 
related  products  to  offset  the  project's  $3  million 
budget,  which  was  funded  by  the  artists,  was 
satirized  in  a  parodic  orange-crate  label. 
Capitalist  Art  Brand,  painted  by  Ben  Sakoguchi.) 
In  a  poignant  way,  Running  Fence,  as  with  most 
of  the  Christos'  projects,  underscores  the  incom- 
patibility of  art  and  nature.  This  spectacular 
project  was  after  all  a  colossal  intervention  into 
nature  and  was  respectfully  withdrawn,  as 
planned,  two  weeks  after  its  completion. 

From  the  1960s  on,  few  artists  involved 
with  depicting  or  even  directly  engaging  the 
landscape  could  draw  upon  the  romantic  inspira- 
tion behind,  say,  Ansel  Adams's  quasi-mythic 
paeans  that  celebrated  the  pristine,  untouched 
land,  isolated  from  humanity.  Adams  wryly  sati- 
rized his  own  romantic  idealism  by  reproducing 
the  photographic  image  of  majestic  snowcapped 
mountains  on,  of  all  things,  a  coffee  can  in 
Yosemite  Valley,  from  Inspiration  Point,  Yosemite 
National  Park.  The  aesthetics  of  the  sublime 
simply  did  not  comport  with  younger  artists' 
more  contemporary  experience  and  understand- 
ing of  nature  in  California,  which  was  shaped 
by  living  with  chronic  smog;  the  "water  wars" 
between  Northern  and  Southern  California;  the 
depletion  of  natural  habitats  and  many  species 


Angeles's  Red  Car  transit  system,  which  made  Henry  Huntington's  personal  fortune,  Is  permanently  dismantled.    >    19  6  2     >    In  June  the  Beach  Boys  have  their  first  Top  40  hit  with  the  single  "Surfin'  Safari, 


Helen  Mayer  Harrison  ond 
Newton  Harrison 

Meditation  I  from  Meditations 
on  the  Condition  of  the 
Sacramento  River,  the  Delta, 
and  the  Bays  of  San  Francisco, 
1977,  satellite  photographic 
map  and  handwritten  text 


of  wildlife;  and  such  disasters  as  a  4  million 
gallon  oil  spill  in  the  Santa  Barbara  Channel  in 
1969  that  helped  catalyze  environmental  activism 
in  the  state.^  It  v^'as  inevitable  that  so  much  of 
the  art  that  looked  at  the  natural  landscape 
would  explore  a  troubled  relationship  between 
humankind  and  nature. 

Some  artists,  such  as  the  husband-and- 
wife  collaborators  Newton  Harrison  and  Helen 
Mayer  Harrison,  hoped  to  improve  this  situation. 
Conceptual  artists  by  profession,  the  Harrisons 
were  also  environmental  activists.  In  about  1970 
they  began  importing  their  environmental 
concerns  into  their  art,  a  practice  they  continue 
to  the  present.  Their  rambling  installation 
concerning  the  Sacramento  River  comprises  a 
panorama  of  maps,  posters,  and  aerial  photo- 
graphs, all  annotated  with  texts  in  the  form  of 


Ester  Hernandez 

Sun  Mad,  1982,  screenprint 


John  Divola 

lumaNo.  ?l,  1977,  from  tl 
portfolio  ^uma  One,  1978, 
dye-imbibition  print 


"meditations"  on  the  unhealthy  state  of  the 
river  and  what  might  be  done  to  restore  the  bal- 
anced ecology  of  the  region.  Significantly,  the 
Harrisons'  remedy  is  not  stricdy  scientific,  nor 
even  practicable:  Their  meditations  recognize 
that  human  behaviors,  perceptions,  values,  and 
institutions  must  change  before  pragmatic  steps 
can  be  taken  toward  changing  the  ecology. 

Concerned  with  the  ecology  of  farming, 
Ester  Hernandez  contested  the  traditional  notion 
of  California  as  an  agricultural  Eden  with  her 
silkscreen  print  Sun  Mad,  replacing  the  familiar 
and  cheerful  trademark  image  of  the  Sun  Maid 
with  a  starding  skeleton.  Sun  Mad  promotes 
raisins  "unnaturally  grown  with  insecticides, 
miticides,  herbicides,  fungicides,"  substances  that 
pose  a  health  threat  to  consumers  and  field- 
workers,  as  well  as  to  the  environment. 


followed  in  October  by  an  album  of  the  same  name.     >     19  6  3     >    Sea  Ranch,  a  real  estate  development  in  Sonoma  County,  makes  headlines  as  an  upscale,  "back  to  the  earth"  community  that  tries  to  bli 


Lee  Friedlander  Wayne  Thiebaud  John  Baldessari 

Los  Angeles,  California,  1965,  Damn  Mariposa,  1979,  from  Looking  East  on  4th  and  C, 

gelatin-silver  print  the  portfolio  Recent  Etchings  I,  1967-68,  acrylic  and  photo 

pi.  3,  etching  emulsion  on  canvas 


Lewis  Baltz 

West  Mall,  Unoccupied 
Industrial  Building,  20  Airway 
Drive,  Costa  Mesa,  from  the 
series  The  New  Industrial 
Parks  near  Irvine,  California, 
1974,  gelatin-silver  print 


iiLii^' 


lan-made  structures  with  trie  natural  landscape.    >    19  64     >    Proposition  14,  an  anti-fair  housing  amendment  to  the  state  constitution,  passes  overwhelmingly.    >    SeaWorld,  developed  by  four  UCLfl  fraternity 


Curiously,  although  the  ubiquitous  freeway 
and  automobile  now  made  California's  deserts, 
mountains,  and  valleys  more  accessible,  most 
artists  who  pictured  the  landscape  tended  to 
stay  closer  to  home.  They  were  drawn  to  the 
domesticated  milieu  of  California's  cities,  indus- 
trial parks,  strip  malls,  and  suburban  neighbor- 
hoods, where  the  uneasy  relationship  between 
people  and  their  surroundings  was  also  played 
out.  Lee  Friedlander's  Los  Angeles,  California, 
captures  the  reflection  of  a  splendid  California 
sunset  above  a  strip-mall  parking  lot  in  a  store 
window,  where  it  vies  for  attention  with  an 
advertisement  showing  a  smiling  couple.  Lewis 
Baltz  brings  a  bleaker  outlook  to  his  series  of 
black-and-white  photographs  The  New  Industrial 
Parks  near  Irvine,  California.  His  recurring 
subject  is  an  assortment  of  modular  prefabri- 
cated warehouses  and  small  factories  that 
brood  glumly  upon  the  vestiges  of  a  receding 
natural  landscape. 

Numerous  artists  cataloged  the  unique 
sprawl  of  Southern  California.  In  a  formal 
exercise  to  avoid  making  pleasing  and  composi- 
tionally  "correct"  photographic  images,  John 
Baldessari  set  about  taking  pictures  of  the 
nondescript  sights  in  and  around  his  hometown 
of  National  City,  a  suburb  of  San  Diego.  The 
monotony  of  suburbia  became  his  inadvertent 
subject.  Looking  East  on  4th  and  C  records  the 
dull  sense  of  vacancy  that  pervades  the  small 
town.  Similarly,  Ed  Ruscha  made  a  series  of 
photographs  called  Every  Building  on  the  Sunset 
Strip;  and  photographers  Joe  Ray,  Bill  Owens, 
and  Camilo  Jose  Vergara  were  among  those 
who  recorded  daily  life  in  the  cities  and  suburbs, 
sometimes  posing  proud  families  in  front  of 
their  homesteads — bungalows  and  cottages 
typical  of  neighborhoods  throughout  Southern 
California. 


LOOKING   EAST  ON  4TH  AND  C 
CHULA  VISTA.  CALIF. 


brothers,  opens.    >    Free  Speech  Movement  starts  at  the  University  of  California  in  Berkeley,  led  by  student  Mario  Savio  among  others.    >    1965     >    The  Watts  riots  result  In  the  deaths  of  34  people  and  ?4Ci  rnlllit 


Very  few  Edenic  visions  survived  into  the 
1960s  and  1970s.  The  witty  images  of  Hfe  in  the 
hills  above  Los  Angeles  by  British-born  expatri- 
ate David  Hockney — who  often  shows  well- 
manicured  lawns  and  backyard  swimming  pools, 
as  in  The  Splash — are  the  surprising  legacy  of 
California  plein  air  painting.  Hockney  has  a 
somewhat  cooler  tonality,  more  restrained  play 
of  light,  and  definitely  "cooler"  attitude  than  that 
of  artistic  forebears  such  as  Granville  Redmond 
and  Guy  Rose,  though  his  work  shares  the  out- 
lander's  fascination  with  the  region's  quality  of 
light,  lush  natural  settings,  and  ineluctable 
sense  of  place — of  "Californianess."  While  their 
California  was  a  vast,  untamed  Eden,  however, 
Hockney 's  is  pervasively  domesticated,  reflecting 
his  time. 


property  damage.  After  the  arrest  of  motorist  Marquette  Frye  in  South  Central  Los  fingeles,  a  scuffle  breaks  out  between  onlookers  and  police  officers.  Violence,  looting,  and  arson  erupt  as  African  Americans,  frustrated 


Joe  Ray 

Untitled  (detail),  1970-72, 
thirty-one  gelatin-silver 
prints 


Bill  Owens 

Our  house  is  built  with  the 
living  room  in  the  back . . .  , 
1970-71,  printed  1982, 
gelatin-silver  print 


Beach  and  car  culture,  inflected  by  new 
technologies  and  materials  that  brought  ever- 
racier  surfaces  to  surfboards  and  automobiles, 
also  figure  prominently  in  California  art  and 
the  American  psyche  during  the  1960s.  The 
California  coast,  with  its  rugged  northern  wilder- 
ness and  its  more  tamed  southern  recreational 
beaches,  remains  a  rich  subliminal  image  of 
American  destiny  in  the  national  subconscious. 
California  was  not  just  a  geographic  land's  end 
but  the  culmination  of  a  preordained  history. 
In  the  previous  century  this  concept,  Manifest 
Destiny,  was  considered  the  national  birthright, 
justifying  the  expansion  of  the  United  States  and 
its  political,  social,  and  economic  dominance 
across  the  North  American  continent  to  the 
Pacific  shore.  According  to  this  boosterist  image, 
the  California  coast  was  nature's  final  gift  to 
Americans,  albeit  to  non-Native  Americans. 

In  the  1960s  car  ownership  was  a  nearly 
universal  aspiration,  and  the  automobile  figures 
prominently  in  representations  of  California  life 
in  that  era.  Indeed,  by  the  mid-1960s,  California 
had  more  drivers  and  cars — nearly  10  million 
of  each- — and  consumed  more  gasoline  than 
any  other  state  in  the  nation.'  The  automobile 


with  poverty  and  a  lack  of  social  services,  unleash  their  anger  in  the  streets.     >    Los  flngeles  County  Museum  of  Art,  previously  combined  with  a  natural  history  museum,  opens  on  V/ilshire  Boulevard  as  a  sepa 


represented  an  implicit  belief  in  Yankee  ingenuity 
working  for  the  egalitarian  benefit  of  all  (who 
could  afford  it)  and  in  the  individual's  freedom 
to  pursue  life,  liberty,  and  happiness  at  whatever 
cost  to  the  environment.  If  the  automobile  began 
its  life  as  a  convenience,  it  grew  to  maturity  as 
an  extension  of  the  American  values  of  social 
mobility,  independence,  and  control  over  one's 
own  destiny. 

Only  Southern  California  could  have 
produced  such  a  seamless  yoking  of  two  such 
essentially  antithetical  mythologies  as  those  of 
nature  and  the  automobile;  but  throughout  the 
1960s,  in  daily  life  and  in  the  arts,  they  did 
indeed  come  together.  Movies,  television.  Top  40 
music,  and  fashion  magazines  promoted  the  free 
and  easy  California  lifestyle,  a  notion  of  ample 
time  and  space,  in  which  casually  clad  folks  go 
about  their  business  at  a  leisurely  pace  and  live 
in  houses  where  indoor  and  outdoor  spaces 
comfortably  communicate  in  an  always  agreeable 
climate.  Sunny,  mellow  California  was  reflected 
in  bands  such  as  the  Beach  Boys  and  surfer  girl 
Gidget  movies.  An  edgier  cruiser  California  came 
across  in  flashy  custom-decorated  autos  and, 
especially  among  Latinos,  in  lowriders — cars 
oufitted  with  hydraulics  that  could  bounce  a 
chassis  up  and  down  in  acrobatic  display. 

Cars  and  the  beach  were  a  heady  draw  for 
many  artists  in  California.  An  artist  colony  grew 
up  in  ramshackle  Venice  Beach,  the  seaside  patch 
of  Los  Angeles  originally  developed  in  1904 
around  a  network  of  narrow  artificial  waterways 
meant  to  evoke  Venice,  Italy.  Peter  Alexander, 
Billy  Al  Bengston  (a  surfer  whose  lingo  and 
wise-guy  demeanor  are  said  to  be  the  basis  of  the 
character  Moondoggie  in  the  Gidget  movies)," 
Ron  Davis,  Joe  Goode,  Craig  Kauffman,  Ken 
Price,  Ed  Ruscha,  DeWain  Valentine,  and  many 
other  artists  gravitated  to  the  district  for  its  low- 
brow, laid-back  lifestyle;  its  hokey,  dilapidated 


exoticism;  and,  of  course,  its  glorious  beach. 
In  the  1960s  no  self-respecting  artist  living  in 
New  York,  where  the  buzzwords  for  the  aesthetics 
of  good  Minimalist  and  Conceptual  art  were 
"serious"  and  "tough,"  would  wish  to  be 
identified  with  anything  so  frivolous  as  beaches 
and  cars,  but  many  of  their  Southern  California 
contemporaries  flaunted  those  associations. 
Ceramist  Ken  Price  chose  a  photograph  of  him- 
self riding  a  wave  as  the  announcement  for  a  1961 
exhibition  at  the  now-legendary  Ferus  Gallery, 
which  played  a  major  historical  role  in  establish- 
ing the  new  generation  of  West  Coast  artists. 
Painter  Bengston,  who  not  only  surfed  but  also 
raced  motorcycles  professionally,  and  twelve 
other  Los  Angeles  artists  went  so  far  as  to  be 
photographed  in  their  cars  and  pickup  trucks  for 
a  calendar  produced  by  Joe  Goode,  under  the 
name  of  Jose  Bueno. 

Several  of  the  Ferus  Gallery  artists  were 
particularly  drawn  to  the  sleek  finish  and  irides- 
cent luster  of  auto  bodies.  Bengston's  abstract 
compositions  of  the  time,  such  as  his  jazzy  oil  spill 
of  a  painting  Lady  for  a  Night,  were  typically  made 
of  automobile  lacquer  dripped  or  spray-painted- 


itity.    >    Filipino  workers  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  announce  a  work  stoppage  when  growers  lower  their  wages.  Cesar  Chavez  declares  "Huelga!"  (strike),  and  a  national  boycott  of  grapes  begins.  The  United  Farm 


Ken  Price  exhibition  Edward  Ruscha 

announcement,  Ferus  Gallery,  Standard  Station,  1966, 

1961,  Lent  by  Ken  Price  Studio  screenprint 


Anthony  Friedkin 

Surfboard  in  the  Setting  Sun, 
Santa  Monica,  California, 
1977,  from  the  Surfing  Essay, 
gelatin-silver  print 


Workers  numbers  only  1,200,  but  Chavez  invites  clergy,  ttie  Congress  of  Racial  Equality,  and  student  activists  from  San  Francisco  State,  Berkeley,  and  Stanford  to  help  organize  the  boycott     >     In  December 


^V/. 


ychedelic  rock  band  the  Warlocks  plays  In  San  francisco  under  its  new  name,  ttie  Grateful  Dead.    >    19  6  6     >    The  Board  of  Supervisors  ot  Los  Hnqeies  county  unsuccessfully  tries  to  shut  down  an  Edward  KienhoU 


Billy  Al  Bengston 

Lady  for  a  Night.  1970, 
lacquer  on  aluminum 


Billy  Al  Bengston  exhibition  Judy  Chicago 

announcement,  Ferus  Gallery,  Car  Hood,  1964,  sprayed 

1961,  Lent  by  Billy  Al  Bengston  acryliclacquer  on  1964 

Corvair  hood 


Calendar  of  Los  Angeles 
artists  in  their  cars  produced 
by  Jose  Bueno  [Joe  Goode], 
1970.  Lent  by  Joe  Goode 


Larry  Fuente 

Derby  Racer,  1975,  mixed 
media  in  epoxy  on  fiberglass 
Berl<eley  (car  model  c.  1962) 


directly  onto  sheet  metal.  Judy  Gerowitz,  who 
changed  her  name  to  Judy  Chicago  and  became 
famous  in  the  1970s  as  one  of  the  foremost  femi- 
nist artists,  was  an  acolyte  of  the  Ferus  "Studs" 
(as  the  core  group  of  John  Altoon,  Robert  Irwin, 
Craig  Kauffman,  Edward  Kienholz,  Allen  Lynch, 
Ed  Moses,  and  Bengston  semiofficially  called 
themselves).  She  had  enjoyed  special  status  as  the 
only  woman  allowed  to  hang  out  with  the  Studs 
at  motorcycle  races  and  at  their  favorite  watering 
hole,  Barney's  Beanery,  where  she  often  smoked 
cigars.^  A  student  of  Bengston,  she  shared  his 
buoyant  sense  of  abstraction,  which  is  clearly 
evident  in  the  bold  mandala  and  flanking 
"embroidery"  of  the  decorative  lacquer-painted 
arcs  of  Car  Hood.  In  her  bravado  identification 
with  L.A.  beach  and  car  culture,  Chicago  goes 
Bengston  one  better  by  painting  directly  on  the 
hood  of  an  automobile. 

The  automobile  became  a  significant  sub- 
ject at  this  time.  Artists  like  Larry  Fuente  from 
Mendocino  in  the  north  and  Gilbert  Lujan  from 
Los  Angeles  in  the  south  followed  the  lead  of 
"Kustom  Kar  Kulture"  enthusiasts  such  as  Ed  "Big 
Daddy"  Roth  by  fetishizing  their  automobiles, 
adorning  them  with  copious,  elaborate,  and  out- 
landish designs,  and  later  exhibiting  their  art  by 
participating  in  derbies  or  driving  through  the 
city  in  motorcades.  San  Francisco-based  Robert 
Bechtle,  an  early  photorealist,  often  painted  pic- 
tures of  cars  in  the  parking  lots  of  diners  and 


neighborhood  businesses.  His  '67  Chrysler  shows 
a  brand-new  coupe  sitting  in  front  of  a  generic 
stucco  house  in  the  early  morning  sun.  He  pre- 
sents the  ensemble  as  an  iconic  image,  abstracted 
from  the  reality  of  daily  life.  The  tableau  is  curi- 
ously lifeless,  as  if  Bechtle  were  hinting  at  some 
dim  ineffable  wrongness  in  all  of  the  cheeriness 
of  car  culture. 


exhibition  at  the  Los  flngeles  County  Museum  of  Art,  deeming  the  room-size  installation  of  a  couple  having  sex  in  the  back  seat  of  a  car  too  risque.  The  objectionable  piece  attracts  the  largest  public  attendance  of , 


Robert  A.  Bechtle 

'67  Chrysler,  1967,  oil  on 
canvas 


Dennis  Hopper 

Double  Standard,  1961, 
printed  later,  gelatin-silver 


Edward  Kienholz 

Back  Seat  Dodge  '38, 
mixed  media 


Chris  Burden 

Trans-Fixed,  1974, 
photo  documentati 


If  SO,  Bechtle  was  not  alone.  The  actor 
and  photographer  Dennis  Hopper  often  imaged 
seedy  aspects  of  urban  Los  Angeles.  His  Double 
Standard  strikes  a  smart  visual  pun,  catching  a 
glimpse  of  two  Standard  Oil  signs  photographed 
through  the  windshield  of  a  car.  Meanwhile 
another  view  is  reflected  in  the  rearview  mirror. 
Formally,  the  image  toys  with  the  conventions 
of  the  picture  plane,  but  a  more  generalized 
significance  is  related  to  the  sense  of  dislocation 
and  fragmentation  people  commonly  experience 
while  navigating  the  city  in  their  automobiles. 

Edward  Kienholz's  Back  Seat  Dodge  '38  has 
become  an  icon  of  what  is  thought  to  be  a  quin- 
tessentially  American  adolescent  experience — 
sex  in  the  backseat  of  a  car.  In  the  mid-1960s 


show  at  the  museum  and  today  is  in  the  permanent  collection.    >    Huey  Newton  and  Bobby  Seale  found  the  Black  Panther  party  In  Oakland.    >    196  7     >    In  January  Ronald  Reagan  becomes  governor  of  Callforni. 


Kienholz's  artwork  was  audacious  and,  to  some, 
indecent.'  His  intent  in  presenting  this  greasy- 
spoon  image  of  patently  illicit  sex  is  ambiguous. 
But  it  is  clear  that  he  conceives  the  role  of  the 
car  as  conferring  unlegislated  freedom  for  people 
to  do  as  they  wish,  even  to  use  the  backseat  of  a 
car  as  a  mobile  motel. 

Whether  car  culture  could  impinge  on 
the  very  sense  of  freedom  and  independence  that 
it  seems  to  engender  was  a  question  posed  in 
an  event  staged  by  Chris  Burden  in  a  nondescript 
garage  one  evening  in  Venice.  In  Trans-Fixed, 
Burden  directed  an  assistant  to  drive  nails  through 
his  palms,  attaching  him  to  a  Volkswagen  Beetle 
in  the  manner  of  a  crucifixion.  Burden  and  the 
car  were  wheeled  out  into  an  alley  to  be  wit- 
nessed by  a  small  crowd.  The  engine  was  run  on 
high  for  two  minutes,  then  the  car  was  pushed 
back  inside,  and  the  garage  doors  were  closed. 
Burden's  scenario  is  open  to  many  interpreta- 
tions— perhaps  America  has  surrendered  its 
soul  to  car  culture,  or  the  individual  has  been 
sacrificed  to  mass  production,  or  there  is 
redemption  and  freedom  in  transcending  the 
automobile — but  the  fact  that  Burden  had 
himself  nailed  to  a  car,  rather  than  to  a  tree  or 
a  cross,  surely  suggests  an  ambivalence  about 
car  culture. 


David  Sanchez  of  East  Los  flngeles  forms  the  Brown  Berets  to  address  community  needs  such  as  housing  and  employment.     >    After  consulting  an  astrologer,  the  Diggers,  an  anarchist  street-theater  group. 


Craig  Kauffman 

Untitled  ^t/all  Relief ,  1967, 
acrylic  lacquer  on  vacuum- 
formed  Plexiglas 


Road  Agenf"^ ,  custom  car 
created  by  Ed  "Big  Daddy" 
Roth,  1963.  Lent  by  Mark 
Moriority 


Peter  Alexander 

Cloud  Box.  1966,  ( 
polyester  resin 


Ken  Price 

Gold,  1968,  ceramic,  glazed 
and  painted  with  acrylic 


Marvin  Lipofsky 

California  Loop  Senes,  1970 
glass,  paint,  and  rayon 
flocking 


Yet  automobile  and  beach  culture  pre- 
vailed over  subliminal  doubts,  and  even  the  sexy 
new  materials  of  cars  and  surfboards — fiberglass, 
resins,  tinted  glass,  and  a  host  of  other  high-tech 
products  developed  by  the  massive  aerospace 
industry  based  in  Southern  California — had  a 
pronounced  influence  on  the  art  world.  The 
run-down  stucco  surroundings  of  Venice  were 
the  perfect  foil  for  this  sleek,  industry-inspired 
art,  sometimes  called  Finish  Fetish,  or  as  the 
artist  and  critic  Peter  Plagens  more  loosely 
described  it,  the  L.A.  Look: 

The  patented  "look"  was  elegance  and  simplicity, 
and  the  mythical  material  was  plastic,  including 
polyester  resin,  which  has  several  attractions: 
permanence  (indoors),  an  aura  of  difficulty  and 
technical  expertise,  and  a  preciousness  (when 
polished)  rivaling  bronze  or  marble.  It  has,  in  short, 
the  aroma  of  Los  Angeles  in  the  sixties— newness, 
postcard  sunset  color,  and  intimations  of 
aerospace  profundity^ 

Craig  Kauffman's  Untitled  Wall  Relief,  a 
new  art  form  straddling  painting  and  sculpture, 
is  a  sleek-surfaced,  vacuum-formed  capsule 
shape  that  appears  to  glow  from  within.  It  could 
be  a  blown-up  detail  of  some  favored  zone  of 
a  voluptuous  automobile.  In  fact,  it  evokes 
Daddy"  Roth's  custom-made  Road  Agent. 


nuary  14  appropriate  for  a  Human  Be-ln  at  San  Francisco's  Golden  Gate  Park.     >    Gray  Line  bus  company  promotes  a  "Hippie  Hop  Tour"  througf*  San  Francisco's  Haight-flshbury  district     >    Monterey  Pop,  the  first 


Automobile  lacquers  are  the  improbable, 
but  brilliantly  successful,  intensely  colored  glazes 
on  many  of  Ken  Price's  exquisite  ovoid  and  pod- 
shaped  ceramics.  In  other  works,  such  as  Gold, 
Price  achieves  a  similar  effect  v\fith  acrylic  paint. 

Significantly,  despite  their  industrial- 
strength  materiality,  many  of  the  technologically 
inspired  artworks  retained  unmistakable  refer- 
ences to  nature.  In  an  enchanting  technical  tour 
de  force,  Peter  Alexander's  Cloud  Box,  made  of 
cast  resins,  simulates  the  startling  visual  paradox 
of  a  cloud  caught  inside  a  box.  Likewise,  in  Roto, 
Ron  Davis  uses  acrylic  colors,  resins,  and  fiber- 
glass to  construct  sprawling,  irregular  polygonal 
shapes  that  suggest  illusionistic  space. 

In  marked  contrast  to  their  Manhattan 
contemporaries  like  Carl  Andre,  Robert  Morris, 
and  Richard  Serra,  who  used  products  of  heavy 
industry  such  as  copper  plates,  galvanized  mesh, 
and  Cor-Ten  steel  to  fabricate  severe,  hard-edge 
geometrical  forms,  the  boys  of  Venice  were 
drawn  to  high-tech  materials  more  for  their  abil- 
ity to  allude  to  natural,  often  organic  forms  and 
to  suggest  light  and  space.  The  same  materials 
that  the  Finish  Fetish  artists  used  to  celebrate  car 
and  beach  cuhure  also  lent  themselves  to  expres- 
sions of  a  more  ethereal,  even  spiritual,  nature. 


major  rock  music  festival  of  the  1960s,  features  Otis  Redding,  Ravi  Shankar,  the  Grateful  Dead,  Jefferson  Airplane,  the  Mamas  and  the  Papas,  Janis  Joplin,  and  Jimi  Hendrix,  among  others.     >    California  has  m 


Ron  Davis 

Roto,  1968,  polyester  resir 
and  fiberglass 


Robert  Irwin 

Untitled,  1968,  acryln 


Larry  Bell  Lla  Cool* 

Cube,  1966,  vacuum-coated  Emergence,  1979,  rayon  and 

glass  polyurethane  foam 


These  evocations  of  light  (often  without  an  obvi- 
ous source)  and  indefinite  space  formed  a  unique 
strain  of  MinimaHst  art  that  critic  Rosahnd 
Krauss  has  called  "the  California  Sublime."'  Larry 
Bell,  Robert  Irwin,  and  James  Turrell  were  inter- 
ested in  new  materials,  especially  in  ones  so  sheer 
that  they  bordered  on  appearing  immaterial. 
Bell's  Cube  employed  the  technology  of  dichroic 
vacuum  coating,  a  method  used  in  the  aerospace 
industry  and  in  optics  to  apply  a  tinted  film  of 
chemicals  to  a  glass  surface.  Bell  applied  these  iri- 
descent films,  with  their  luminous  colors  fading 
off  to  invisibility,  to  the  inside  surfaces  of  a  glass 
box  to  evoke  its  visual  dematerialization.  For  his 
part,  Irwin  made  a  series  of  lightly  tinted  cast- 
acrylic  resin  disks  that  appear  as  a  glow  of  pure 
color  that  spreads  out  into  white  nothingness. 
Irwin's  disks,  which  are  extremely  difficult  to 
photograph  convincingly,  are  also  evocative  of 
immaterial  phenomena. 


Bell  and  Irwin  used  the  latest  materials 
to  achieve  their  ethereal  effects,  whereas  James 
Turrell  turned  to  the  most  immaterial  medium 
of  all:  pure  light.  The  work  Afriim  Proto  (1966) 
presents  a  darkened  space  in  which  the  uncanny 
vision  of  an  intensely  glowing  three-dimensional 
cube  floats  in  blackness,  as  if  defying  gravity.  As 
the  viewer  approaches  the  "structure,"  its  crisply 
defined  edges  dissolve,  and  the  form  disappears 
altogether.  The  dramatic  illusion  is  created  by  a 
light  projector  and  a  perforated  filter.  It  is  noth- 
ing more  than  the  very  worldly  consequence  of 
light  projected  through  an  opening;  but  what  it 
evokes  is  nothing  less  than  sublime.' 

Zen  Buddhism,  with  its  basis  in  meditation 
and  the  attainment  of  personal  enlightenment  as 
well  as  its  unified  conception  of  simultaneous 
being  and  nonbeing,  had  already  proved  influen- 
tial on  American  artists  as  early  as  the  1940s  and 
1950s,  and  it  enjoyed  a  renaissance  during  the 


;  than  any  other  state,  los  flngeles  County  alone  has  4.5  million  vehicles.    >    19  6  8     >    On  March  3,  students  at  Lincoln  High  School  in  East  los  flngeles  declare  a  "Blow  OutI"  to  protest  poor  educational  facilities 


and  institutional  racism.     >    Robert  Kennedy  assassinated  on  June  4  at  the  Ambassador  Hotel  In  Los  flngeles  after  winning  the  nomination  for  president  in  the  California  primary.     >    Congr 


joe  Goode 

Untitled  (Torn  Sky),  1971-76, 


Ed  Moses 

Untitled,  1972,  Rhoplex  and 
acrylic  on  laminated  tissue 


Sam  Francis 

SFP68'29,  1968,  acr 
canvas 


jcation  Act  authorizing  federal  funds  to  subsidize  the  teaching  of  basic  subjects  In  Spanish  as  well  as  English.    >    Students  at  UC  Berkeley  found  the  Asian  American  Political  Alliance,  one  of  the  first  organizations 


1970s  and  1980s  in  reductive  painting.  Joe  Goode 
made  a  series  of  "torn  sky"  paintings,  depicting 
airy  scatterings  of  clouds,  diaphanous  wisps 
floating  vaporously  in  an  expanse  of  celestial 
blue.  These  aeroreveries  are  alarmingly  inter- 
rupted by  large  fissures  torn  in  the  canvas. 
Goode's  works  appear  to  straddle  some  middle 
realm  between  the  ethereal  and  the  material. 
Similarly,  in  Ed  Moses's  Untitled  (1972),  an 
abstract  composition  painted  on  tissue  paper 
with  Rhoplex,  the  brushstrokes  of  the  synthetic 
medium  have  dried  and  formed  a  delicate 
gossamer.  Sam  Francis's  SFP68-29  is  a  field  of 
bright  white  animated  only  at  the  extreme  left 
and  right  edges  by  dancing  rivulets  of  spectral 
color  that  seem  to  aspire  upward.  The  almost 
entirely  void  canvas  suggests  the  elusive  concept 
of  the  absentness  of  the  present. 

Other  artists  were  creating  spiritually 
inflected  art  that  was  less  informed  by  natural 
phenomena  or  reductivist  aesthetics  than  by 
other  cultural  and  social  concerns.  Wallace 
Herman  had  established  himself  in  the  icono- 
clasm  of  Beat  culture,  yet  he  was  also  an  ardent 
student  of  the  Jewish  mystical  tradition  of 
Kabbalah.  In  these  teachings.  Scripture  is  inter- 
preted not  only  through  study  of  its  text  and 
individual  words  but  also  through  the  relation- 
ship of  its  letters  and  numbers  to  one  another. 
Herman's  Topanga  Seed,  a  large  rock  that  he  found 
in  Topanga  Canyon  near  Malibu,  is  inscribed 
with  Hebraic  texts.  Just  as  it  is  unnecessary  to 
understand  the  inscriptions  on  the  Rosetta  stone 
to  experience  its  spiritual  quality,  Herman's  rock 
possesses  a  mysterious  presence  that  transcends 
literal  meaning. 


to  bring  together  Chinese,  Japanese,  and  Filipino  American  activists.     >    Californian  Richard  Nixon  is  elected  president.     >    Old  Town  San  Diego,  settled  in  1769,  is  established  as  a  state  historic  park.  Original  . 


George  Herms 

everything  Is  O.K.,  1966, 
wood,  metal,  plaster,  and 
Plexiglas 


Wallace  Berman 

TopangaSeed,  1969-70, 
dolomite  rock  and  transfer 
letters 


Edmund  Teske 

Untitled.  1962,  ge 


John  Outterbrldge 

Together  Let  Us  Break  I 
1968,  assemblage 


Stephen  De  Staebler 

Seated  Kangaroo  IVoma 
1978,  clay,  fired 


A  less  mystical  artist  but  one  consistently 
concerned  with  spirituality  and  the  life  of  the 
soul  is  John  Outterbridge,  who  migrated  from 
Greenville,  North  Carolina,  and  settled  in 
Los  Angeles  in  1963.  As  artist,  activist,  and 
director  of  the  Watts  Towers  Art  Center,  he  was 
mentor  to  several  generations  of  diverse  commu- 
nity artists.  His  altarlike  assemblage  Together 
Let  Us  Break  Bread  was  created  in  the  aftermath 
of  the  Watts  uprisings  as  a  sacramental  gesture 
toward  healing  racial  tension  and  fostering 
racial  harmony. 


/ 


Thus  the  spiritual  and  landscape  tradi- 
tions in  California  art  of  the  1960s  and  1970s 
were  rooted  in  larger  cultural  and  social  issues. 
Unquestionably,  the  single  most  commanding 
influence  on  culture  in  California  during  this 
period  was  the  advent  of  counterculture,  which 
embraced  a  spectrum  of  causes  ranging  from 
"flower  power"  and  hippie  culture  to  radical 
political  organizations,  the  anti-Vietnam  War 
movement,  feminism,  and  gay  liberation. 

Counterculture  quickly  developed  nation- 
ally and  internationally,  but  many  of  its  mani- 
festations began  in  California.  The  urban  yet 
freewheeling  San  Francisco  neighborhood  known 
as  Haight-Ashbury  attracted  successors  to  the 
Beat  generation — young  freethinkers,  lifestyle 
experimenters,  and  dropouts  of  every  kind. 
Across  the  Bay,  the  more  political  Free  Speech 
Movement  coalesced  on  the  Berkeley  campus 
of  the  University  of  California,  while  in  Oakland 
the  Black  Panther  party  was  founded  in  1966 
by  Bobby  Seale  and  Huey  P.  Newton.  The 
Chicano  movement  took  root  in  the  agricultural 
fields  of  the  Salinas  Valley  and  spread  to  the 
Southland  barrios,  where  it  quickly  inspired  a 
vaster  constituency.  Women's  centers  up  and 
down  the  state,  such  as  the  Woman's  Building 
in  Los  Angeles,  were  the  birthplaces  of  the 
women's  art  movement,  an  important  aspect  of 
feminism.  These  political  movements  all  had  a 
palpable  impact  on  the  cultural  life  of  California 
and  the  nation. 

The  second-  and  third-generation  Beats, 
the  so-called  flower  children,  and  the  other  free 
spirits  of  the  mid-1960s  who  congregated  around 
Haight-Ashbury  would  later  come  to  be  called 
hippies  and  were  certainly  the  most  picturesque 
people  within  the  new  youth  movement.'" 
Timothy  Leary,  a  Harvard  University  professor  of 
psychology  from  i960  to  1963  who  became  a  drug 


jstored  to  re-create  California  life  of  the  Mexican  and  early  American  periods.     >    The  American  Indian  Movement  Is  formed  by  Chippewas  George  Mitchell  and  Dennis  Banks      >     Whole  lirth  CiWog  offers 


■f 


"access  to  tools"  to  individuals  attempting  to  live  "outside  the  system."    >    19  6  9     >    fit  the  height  of  the  Vietnam  War,  70Z  of  San  Diego's  workforce  is  engaged  in  work  for  the  military. 


group  of  young  Indi-. 


Psychedelic  posters  by  Stanley 
Mouse  and  Alton  Kelley,  1966; 
Jim  Blashfield,  photograph  by 
Herb  Green,  1967;  and  Victor 
Moscoso,  1967,  respectively. 
Lent  by  Jim  Heimann 


The  Hippie  Scene,  postcar 
late  1960s.  Lent  by 
Jim  Heimann 


Ruth-Marlon  Baruch 

Shakespeare  Couple,  Haight- 
Ashbury,  1967,  gelatin-silver 
print 


Gage  Taylor 

Mescahne  Woods, 


Tales  from  the  Tube,  no.  1, 
1973,  underground  comic  by 
Rick  Griffin.  Lent  by  the 
McClelland  Collection 


Richard  Marquis  and 
Nirmal  Kaur 

Americar)  Acid  Capsule  with 
Cloth  Container,  1969-70, 
solid-worked  gloss  and  cloth 


advocate  and  guru  of  the  counterculture,  called 
upon  young  people  to  "turn  on,  tune  in,  and 
drop  out,"  and  many  in  Haight-Ashbury  heeded 
his  mantra.  The  hippies  were  ubiquitous  in  the 
media,  and  unlike  the  Beats  before  them,  they 
proved  galvanic  in  the  popular  American  psyche, 
which  imagined  that  all  hippies  engaged  in  free 
love  and  used  marijuana  and  hallucinogenics 
such  as  LSD  and  mescaline.  Hippies  were  por- 
trayed, as  in  Ruth-Marion  Baruch's  photograph 
Shakespeare  Couple,  Haight-Ashbury,  as  colorful 
and  folksy  longhaired  youths,  many  of  whom 
wore  beat-up  Levi's,  tie-dyed  T-shirts,  macrame 
headbands  and  belts,  and  necklaces  symbolizing 
love  and  peace  called  "love  beads." 

By  1967  the  Gray  Line  bus  company  added 
a  two-hour  San  Francisco  Haight-Ashbury 
district  "Hippie  Hop  Tour"  to  its  schedule,  pro- 
moting it  as  "the  only  foreign  tour  within  the 
continental  United  States.""  Tour  participants 


were  exposed  to  head  shops  selling  all  manner 
of  drug  paraphernalia,  countless  secondhand 
clothing  stores,  bookstores,  and  record  shops, 
and  were  driven  by  the  Fillmore  Auditorium,  the 
Carnegie  Hall  of  counterculture  music. 

With  respect  to  painting  and  sculpture, 
however,  hippie  culture  did  not  produce  much. 
Gage  Taylor's  psychedelia-inspired  landscapes, 
like  Mescaline  Woods,  are  a  conspicuous  excep- 
tion. In  contrast,  comic  books,  psychedelic 
posters,  and  other  examples  of  graphic  design 
celebrating  the  hippie  lifestyle  or  advertising 
concerts  and  outdoor  gatherings  called  "be-ins" 
or  "love-ins"  proliferated. 

Ironically,  society  at  large  readily  imitated 
and  co-opted  the  hippie  image,  particularly  in 
fashion  design.  Billy  Shire's  Untitled  Denim 
jacket,  with  its  encrustation  of  metallic  studs  and 
paste  stones,  and  Fred  E.  Kling's  Wedding  Dress, 
with  its  floral  and  magical  rainbow  motifs,  were 
unique  creations  intended  for  the  few  who  could 
afford  them.  Mass-produced  clothing — off-the- 
rack  apparel  such  as  bell-bottom  jeans,  body 
shirts,  and  leather  boots — and  the  commodifi- 
cation  of  the  hippie  lifestyle  in  such  publications 
as  The  Whole  Earth  Cflffl/o^  enabled  millions  of 
people  who  were  not  hippies  to  participate  safely 
and  vicariously  in  the  countercultural  revolution 
and  to  develop  a  tolerance  for  ideas  and  modes 
of  behavior  that  probably  merely  fascinated 
them  from  afar. 


ccupies  the  deserted  federal  penitentiary  on  flicatraz  Island  in  San  Francisco  Bay,  demanding  federal  funds  for  a  cultural  center  and  a  university.    >    Ttie  first  message  on  the  flRPflNtT,  a  precursor  to  the  Internet, 


sent  from  UCLft  fo  the  Stanford  Research  Institute.     >    People's  Park  in  Berkeley— a  plot  of  land  the  size  of  a  football  field— becomes  the  site  of  a  battle  between  the  University  of  California  and  students,  hippies. 


FredE.  Kling 

Billy  Shire 

Rudi  Gernreich 

Rudi  Gernreich 

Crawford  Barton 

Tom  of  Finland 

Meddmg  Dress,  1973, 

Untitled  Denim  Jacket, 

Unisex  Caftan,  1970,  pri 

nted 

"Topless"  Bathing  Suit 

,  1964, 

L/ntif/ed,c.  1975,  gelatin- 

Untitled,  1962,  graphite 

hond-pamted  cotton 

1973,  denim,  metallic  studs, 
paste  stones,  and  attached 
metallic  objects 

silk 

wool  knit 

silver  print 

paper 

i 


V 

it 


A  popular  by-product  of  hippie  culture, 
with  its  lionization  of  long  hair  and  its  casual 
views  of  sexuality,  was  the  unisex  fashion  fad  of 
the  1960s  and  1970s.  Quickly  appropriated  by  the 
dominant  culture,  the  unisex  craze  lent  itself  to 
witty  ready-to-wear  and  haute  couture,  such  as 
Rudi  Gernreich's  Unisex  Caftan.  Outright  sexual 
display  was  not  ruled  out  either,  as  revealed  in 
Gernreich's  "Topless"  Bathing  Suit,  which  let  it  all 
hang  out.  Beyond  unisex,  even  overt  homosexu- 
ality began  to  lose  some  of  its  taboo  through  the 
counterculture.  The  campy  beefcake  drawings  by 
Tom  of  Finland  that  had  previously  circulated 
discreetly  in  the  gay  underground  now  began  to 
come  out  of  the  closet. 


community  activists.    >    Charles  Hanson's  Family  commits  the  grisly  Tate-La  Bianca  murders  in  Us  flngeles,  leaving  7  dead,  including  film  director  Roman  Polanski's  pregnant  wife,  actress  Sharon  Tafe.    >    Pasadena 


ftrt  Museum,  formerly  the  Pasadena  flrf  Institute,  opens  In  a  new  building  and  gains  renown  for  its  radical  and  often  controversial  eKhibitions.     >    fin  oil  spill  from  a  Unocal  Corporation  well  in  the  Santa  Barbara  Chanr 


Hippie  culture  allowed  for  change;  the 
larger  counterculture  demanded  it.  The  demands 
for  civil  rights,  equal  opportunity,  decent  wages, 
health  care,  union  representation,  and  an  end 
to  the  Vietnam  War  were  shared  by  many  seg- 
ments of  society — including  African  Americans, 
Chicanos,  Native  Americans,  migrant  workers, 
students,  women  of  all  backgrounds,  homo- 
sexuals— who  wanted  to  change  the  way  the 
country  conducted  itself.  The  1960s  and  1970s 
formed  an  era  of  civil  protest  and  calls  for 
empowerment,  of  which  quite  a  few  were  gradu- 
ally fulfilled. 

Amid  the  temper  of  political  struggle,  the 
distinction  between  photojournalists  and  fine- 
art  photographers  began  to  blur.  Some  photogra- 
phers envisioned  their  work  as  an  evocation  of 
the  spirit  of  struggle.  Pictures  such  as  Harry 
Adams's  Funeral  of  Ronald  Stokes,  29,  Secretary 
of  Mosque  #27,  Los  Angeles,  Mays,  1962,  or 
Charles  Brittin's  Arrest  (Legs)  Downtown  Federal 
Building,  Los  Angeles,  California,  did  not  merely 
document  episodes  of  tragedy  and  turmoil  in 
the  history  of  blacks  in  Los  Angeles  during  the 
1960s.  They  are  also  iconic,  almost  archetypal, 
images  of  the  battle  of  an  entire  people  for  rights 
and  dignity  in  a  society  bound  by  law  and  princi- 
ple to  honor  those  rights.  Pirkle  Jones's  Window 
of  the  Black  Panther  Party  National  Headquarters 
shows  an  image  of  political  posters,  including 
the  now-famous  image  of  Panther  cofounder 
Huey  P.  Newton  in  a  wicker  peacock  chair  holding 


spreads  into  an  800-square-mile  slick,  killing  wildlife  and  causing  large-scale  environmental  damage.  Modern  environmental  activism  is  born.     >     19  7  8     >    On  August  <!3  the  National  Chicano  Moratorium  gathers 


Harry  Adams  Charles  Brittin 

Funeral  of  Ronald  Stokes,  29,  Arrest  (Legs)  Downtown 

Secretary  of  Mosque  "27,  Los  Federal  Building,  Los  Angele 

Angeles,  May  5,  1962,  1962,  California,  c.  1965,  gelatin- 

gelatin-silver  print  silver  print 


Cleaver  for  President,  poster, 
1968.  Lent  by  the  Center 
for  the  Study  of  Political 
Graphics,  Los  Angeles, 
California 


Pirkle  Jones 

Window  of  the  Black 
Panther  Party  National 
Headquarters,  1968, 
gelatin-silver  print 


:  Angeles's  Uquna  Park  to  protest  the  disproportionately  higf)  number  of  Mexican  American  men  killed  in  Vietnam.  Ttie  gathering  is  broken  up  by  riot  police,  who  injure  70  and  kill  2,  including  Rub* 


Betye  Soar 

The  Liberation  of  Aunt 
Jemima,  1972,  mixed-medi( 
assemblage 


Noah  Purifoy 

Sif  Watfs  //,  1996  (replication 
of  lost  original,  Sir  Notts, 
1966),  mixed  media 


David  Hammons 

Injustice  Case.  1970,  body 
print  (margarine  and 
powdered  pigments)  and 
American  flag 


*!&• 

|: 

i 

i 

a  spear  in  one  hand  and  a  rifle  in  the  other, 
behind  glass  that  has  been  shattered  by  bullets. 
Newton's  pose  is  echoed  in  Betye  Saar's  The 
Liberation  of  Aunt  jemima,  which  incorporates 
a  mammy  figurine  wielding  a  broom  in  one 
hand  and  a  rifle  in  the  other. 

David  Hammons,  living  in  Los  Angeles 
in  the  1960s,  created  another  widely  known  icon 
of  artistic  protest,  Injustice  Case.  The  image  is 
a  unique  "body  print" — a  direct  transfer  image 
made  by  pressing  paper  against  a  graphite- 
covered  body — that  shows  a  gagged  man  tied  to 
a  chair.  The  high-relief  border  that  frames  the 
work,  visually  imprisoning  it,  is  made  with  an 
actual  American  flag.  Injustice  Case  assails  the 
treatment  of  Black  Panther  cofounder  Bobby 
Seale.  In  1969  Scale  was  a  codefendant  in  the 
trial  of  the  Chicago  8,  who  were  charged  with 
inciting  civil  unrest  at  the  Democratic  National 
Convention  the  year  before.  During  the  trial, 
he  was  ordered  bound  and  gagged  by  Judge 
Julius  Hoffman. 


spoken  supporter  of  Chicano  rights  and  a  columnist  for  the  Los  ftngeles  Times.      >     19  7  1      >    After  the  longest  trial  in  the  state's  history,  Charles  Manson  and  three  associates  are  convicted  ui  the  iS*6a 


Tate-la  Bianca  murders.     >    1972     >    The  de  Young  Memorial  Museum  and  the  California  Palace  of  the  legion  of  Honor  merge  to  form  the  Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco.     >    Pong,  the  first 


coin-operated  • 


The  Chicano  art  movement  emerged  in 
California  as  a  remarkable  confluence  of  politi- 
cal, labor,  and  cultural  causes  motivated  by  the 
discontent  and  the  aspirations  of  the  Mexican 
and  Mexican  American  population.  Once  articu- 
lated, La  Causa  quickly  inspired  similar  move- 
ments in  Texas  and  other  parts  of  the  Southwest 
and  Midwest  from  the  mid-1960s  into  the  1970s. 
The  actor,  playwright,  and  director  Luis  Valdez  is 
widely  credited  with  beginning  the  movement 
when  he  founded  El  Teatro  Campesino,  or  Farm 
Workers'  Theater,  which  staged  improvised  per- 
formances in  the  fields  and  on  the  roadsides  of 


the  Salinas  Valley  to  support  the  nascent  labor 
movement  being  organized  by  Cesar  Chavez  and 
the  National  Farm  Workers  Association  (later  the 
United  Farm  Workers).  It  is  probable  that  this 
unique  coalition  of  artists  and  political  organiz- 
ers could  only  have  come  together  with  such  a 
successful  program  in  California.  The  state  had 
the  critical  mass  of  Latino  artists  necessary  to 
spawn  a  political  and  cultural  movement,  and 
scarcely  any  concerted  attention  from  the  gallery, 
museum,  and  critical  establishment  to  support, 
or  rather  to  divert,  the  artists  in  more  customary 
art  world  activities. 

Teatro  Campesino's  example  inspired 
many  writers,  performing  artists,  and  visual  artists 
to  take  up  the  cause.  Salvador  Roberto  Torres 's 
oil  painting  Viva  La  Raza  is  a  heraldic  image  of 
the  symbol  of  the  United  Farm  Workers.  The 
Aztec  eagle  is  shown  with  its  wings  outspread 
and  its  body  and  tail  resembling  an  inverted 
Aztec  pyramid.  La  raza  means  "the  race"  or,  more 
accurately,  "the  people,"  and,  indeed,  the  Chicano 
movement  was  about  a  people,  a  culture,  an 


is  introduced  at  flndy  Capp's  tavern  in  Sunnyvale,  California.     >    Ttie  first  : 


jgment  of  San  Francisco's  Bay  firea  Rapid  Transit  system  opens  to  the  publi( 


1973     >    Energy  crisis  set  off  by  Arab  oil 


£1  Teatro  Campesmo,  poster 
by  Andrew  Zermeno,  c   1967, 
Lent  by  UCLA  Library, 
Department  of  Special 
Collections 


Emmon  Clarke 

Untitled,  1960s,  gelatii 


La  Ra^a,  vol.  I,  no.  7,  1969. 
Lent  by  the  UCLA  Chicano 
Studies  Research  Center 

Library 


Salvador  Roberto  Torres 

Viva  La  Raza,  1969,  oil  on 
canvas 


identity.  Many  Chicano  artists  aspired  to  assert 
their  cultural  and  ethnic  identity  in  the  face  of 
neglect,  indifference,  and  denigration.  Some 
even  sought,  perhaps  somewhat  romantically,  to 
reclaim  the  culture's  roots  in  Aztlan — the  Aztec 
homeland,  which  some  Chicanos  believe  is  found 
in  the  annexed  Mexican  territories  of  the  south- 
western United  States,  and  which  became  the 
name  of  the  movement's  new  Chicano  nation." 
Numerous  Chicano  arts  organizations  emerged 
during  this  period:  Plaza  de  la  Raza,  a  community- 
based  gallery  and  art  center  opened  in  Los  Angeles 
in  1969;  La  Raza  Graphic  Center,  a  workshop  for 
graphic  artists,  opened  in  San  Francisco  in  1971; 
and  Self-Help  Graphics  and  Art,  a  similar  work- 
shop and  training  ground  for  young  artists, 
opened  in  Los  Angeles  in  1972. 

In  1974  in  Venice,  Judith  Baca  founded  the 
Social  and  Public  Art  Resource  Center  (sparc), 
whose  mission  was  to  produce  and  preserve 
murals  by  Chicano  artists  throughout  Southern 
California.  Baca,  a  muralist  herself,  directed  the 
monumental  mural  project  The  Great  Wall  of 
Los  Angeles,  painted  on  some  400  feet  of  concrete 
retaining  wall  along  the  Tujunga  Wash  Drainage 
Canal  in  the  San  Fernando  Valley  in  Los  Angeles 
County.  The  Great  Wall  historicizes  an  eclectic 
panoply  of  Los  Angeles  events  and  peoples, 
including  many  marginalized  groups. 

Another  major  mural  project  resulted 
from  community  opposition  in  "Barrio  Logan," 
a  once-Anglo  suburb  of  San  Diego  officially  called 
Logan  Heights.  In  the  mid-1960s  freeway  con- 
struction cut  through  the  center  of  the  predomi- 
nantly Chicano  neighborhood.  When  plans  were 
announced  in  April  1970  to  build  a  Highway 
Patrol  headquarters  beneath  a  massive  interchange, 
residents  occupied  the  site  in  protest  for  twelve 
days,  cleaning  it  up  and  planting  trees.  Ultimately 
the  city  abandoned  its  proposal,  and  Chicano  Park 
was  created  instead.  By  1973  community  action 


embargo  has  enormous  Impact  in  California,  where  more  | 


than  in  any  other  state.     >    In  the  Imperial  Valley,  Sacramento,  and  V/ashlngton,  D.  C. ,  the  United  Farm  Workers  union  launches  an  antipestii 


Victor  Ochoa  et  al. 

Photo  documentation  of 
Chicano  Park  murals, 
Son  Diego,  1973-present 
(scale  reconstruction  in 
exhibition) 


Judith  Baca/Social  and 
Public  Art  Resource  Center 
(SPARC) 

The  Great  Wall  of  Los  Angeles 
(detail),  1976-83,  mural, 
Tujunga  Wash,  San  Fernando 
Valley 


groups  had  organized  a  program,  later  supervised 
by  the  Chicano  Park  Steering  Committee,  in 
which  both  well-known  and  lesser-established 
artists  throughout  California  were  invited  to  paint 
murals  on  the  concrete  pilings  of  the  interchange. 
The  project  is  ongoing.  The  murals  depict  reli- 
gious subjects  such  as  Our  Lady  of  Guadalupe, 
episodes  of  Chicano  social  and  political  history, 
themes  of  community  identity,  and  Aztec-inspired 
images.^^  Both  the  Sparc  and  Chicano  Park 
murals  position  themselves  in  the  populist  tradi- 
tion of  the  monumental,  polemical  muralism  of 
Jose  Clemente  Orozco,  Diego  Rivera,  and  David 
Alfaro  Siqueiros,  whose  legacy  of  visiting  and 
working  in  California  proffered  spiritual  mentor- 
ship  to  a  new  generation  of  Chicano  muralists. 

Chicano  artist  collectives  developed  as  well. 
In  Los  Angeles,  Los  Four  was  a  loose  confederation 
of  Carlos  Almaraz,  Roberto  (Beto)  de  la  Rocha, 


Frank  Romero,  and  Gilbert  Sanchez  Lujan,  who 
were  unified  in  their  energetic  gestural  painting, 
their  bold  palette,  and  most  of  all  in  their  focus 
on  the  sights,  rhythms,  and  pace  of  Chicano 
Los  Angeles.  They  showed  together  off  and  on  as 
a  group  over  a  ten-year  period,  but  they  are  best 
remembered  for  an  exhibition  titled  Los  Four 
(1973-74)  that  was  organized  at  the  University  of 
California,  Irvine,  and  subsequently  seen  at  the 
Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art  (lacma), 
where  it  became  known  as  the  first  exhibition 
of  Chicano  artists  at  a  major  museum. 

At  least  officially.  Two  years  earlier,  in 
December  of  1972,  Asco,  another  loosely  formed 
L.A.  artists'  group,  spray-painted  the  names  of 
three  of  its  members  on  the  entrances  to  lacma, 
protesting  a  principal  curator's  stated  lack  of 
interest  in  Chicano  art.  Though  the  museum 
painted  over  the  graffiti  the  same  day,  Asco  envi- 
sioned their  action  as  a  performance/guerrilla 
theater/conceptual  activity  and  thus  cheekily 


iampaiqn      >     19  74     >    J.  Paul  Gefty  Museum,  in  Malibu,  opens  to  the  publi 


19  75     >    Norton  Simon  Museum,  formerly  the  Pasadena  firt  Museum,  opens.    >    fit  age  36,  Jerry  Brown  becomes  governor  of 


Los  Four:  Almaraz/de  la 
Rocha  /  Lujan  /  Romero , 
exhibition  catalogue, 
UC  Irvine  and  LACMA,  1973-74, 
design  by  Frank  Romero 


Asco  (Harry  Gamboajr., 
Gronk,  Willie  Herron,  and 
Patssi  Valdez) 

Instant  Mural.  1974,  stills 
from  videotape  of  Super  8  film 
of  performance 


Asco  (Harry  Gamboa  Jr. , 
Gronk,  Willie  Herron,  and 
Patssi  Valdez) 

Spray  Paint  iACMA,  1972, 
photo  documentation  of 
guerrilla  art  action 


laid  claim  to  the  first  Chicano  art  exhibition  at 
the  museum.  Asco  operated  more  or  less  within 
the  Chicano  movement,  but  as  the  enfant  terrible 
of  the  family.  The  four  members  of  Asco — 
writer  Harry  Gamboa  Jr.,  painters  Patssi  Valdez 
and  Gronk,  and  muralist  Willie  Herron,  all  of 
whom  also  did  performance  art  (occasionally 
joined  by  Humberto  Sandoval  and  others  who 
drifted  in  and  out  of  Asco's  activities) — in  many 
ways  stood  against  traditionalism  and  conformity 
to  the  received  culture  of  Chicanismo."  They 
satirized  Chicano  muralism,  for  example,  with 
Instant  Mural,  in  which  Gronk  used  tape  to 
attach  Valdez  and  Sandoval  to  a  wall  in  East 
Los  Angeles.  Not  surprisingly,  Asco  (which  means 
nausea  in  Spanish)  was  regarded  ambivalently 
by  the  Chicano  community. 


California.  The  son  of  former  governor  Edmund  Ij.  "Pat"  Brown,  he  proves  to  be  a  champion  of  women's  rights.  Brown  appoints  more  than  1,600  women  to  state  office,  including  Chief  Justice  Rose  Bird,  the  first  worri 


Three  issues  of  El  Malcriado, 
the  journal  of  the  United  Farm 
Workers  union,  1966-68. 
Lent  by  Shifra  M.  Goldman 


Two  issues  of  The  Black 
Panther,  the  newspaper  of 
the  Black  Panther  party,  fron 
1969  and  1972.  Lent  by  the 
Southern  California  Library  fc 
Social  Studies  and  Research 


Illustration  from  the  flyer 
Rally  against  Racism,  Mar, 
Repression,  San  Jose,  1972. 
Lent  by  the  Southern 
California  Library  for  Social 
Studies  and  Research 


Save  Our  Sister,  1972, 
poster  by  Rupert  Gorcia. 
Lent  by  the  Center  for  the 
Study  of  Political  Graphics, 
Los  Angeles,  California 


Judy  Dater 

Ltbby,  1971,  gelotin-silver 


@il. 


a,  El  Mokriodo  (w<) '  -^j'-    ■;  ;■ 


lAM 


^^•m¥mm 


HUill^' 


BOYCOTT 
LETTUCE 


mm 


W  V  . 


Among  the  various  factions  that  made 
up  the  countercultural  revolution,  many  groups 
acknowledged  solidarity  and  worked  in  sym- 
pathy with  one  another.  The  Black  Panther,  the 
newspaper  of  the  Black  Panther  party,  ran 
cover  stories  proclaiming  solidarity  with  Native 
Americans  and  with  the  United  Farm  Workers. 
In  San  Jose  in  1972,  a  rally  protesting  racism, 
war,  and  repression  was  sponsored  by  a  broad 
coalition  of  twenty-two  organizations  devoted 
to  civil  rights,  antiwar,  and  civil  liberties  issues. 
The  flyer  announcing  the  rally  featured  multiple 
emblems  and  slogans  composed  in  a  single 
drawing.  One  group,  however,  literally  cut  across 
the  borders  of  all  revolutionary  factions  and 
included  members  of  all  groups:  the  women's 
movement. 


be  named  to  that  position.    >    1976     >    Apple  Computers  is  founded  by  Steve  Jobs  and  Stephen  Wozniak  in  Mountain  View,  California,    >    1978     >    The  Bakke  v.  University  of  California  decision  sets  new 


Like  the  Chicano  Causa,  the  women's  art 
movement  was  as  poHtical  as  it  was  artistic,  and  it 
likewise  flourished  outside  of  the  interests  of  the 
established  art  world.  Inspired  by  the  civil  rights 
movement,  the  women's  movement  was  partly 
focused  on  achieving  equal  opportunity  and  equal 
representation,  in  the  political  arena  and  the 
annals  of  history.  Feminism  also  proposed  a  new 
way  of  conceiving  art  and  the  role  of  the  artist. 
Judy  Chicago,  former  cohort  of  the  Ferus  Gallery 
Studs,  began  the  Feminist  Art  Program,  the  first 
of  its  kind  in  the  nation,  at  Fresno  State  College 
(now  California  State  University,  Fresno)  in  1970. 
Her  curriculum  stressed  innovative  art  forms 
rooted  in  modes  of  performance  and  installation; 
new  content  expressing  feelings,  concepts,  and 
issues  that  related  particularly  to  women;  and 
appreciation  of  the  forgotten,  repressed,  or  ignored 
history  of  women  in  the  visual  arts.  Faith  Wilding, 
a  student  in  the  program,  recounts  how  Chicago, 
instructing  her  class  to  make  an  art  project 


dealing  with  sexual  harassment,  provoked  a  new 
vision  of  being  an  artist: 

Never  in  our  previous  art  educatior)  had  we  been 
asked  to  make  work  out  of  a  real  life  experience, 
much  less  one  so  emotionally  loaded.  With  license 
to  use  any  media  or  form  we  wanted,  we  came  back 
the  next  week  with  poems,  scripts,  drawings,  photos 
and  performance  ideas . . .  By  fortuitous  accident, 
it  seemed,  we  had  stumbled  on  a  way  of  working: 
using  consciousness-raising  to  elicit  content,  we 
then  worked  in  any  medium  or  mixture  of  media- 
including  performance,  role-playing,  conceptual- 
and  text-based  art,  and  other  nontraditional 
tools— to  reveal  our  hidden  histories.'^ 

It  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  a  practice  of  art 
making  more  contrary  in  intent  to  the  strict 
formalism  and  brute  materialism  of  Minimalist 
art  then  dominant  in  New  York.  Once  again, 
California's  critical  mass  of  art  activity  coupled 
with  its  remove  from  the  principal  art  center  in 
the  nation  facilitated  a  new  direction  in  art. 

In  1971  Paul  Brach,  dean  of  the  art  school 
at  California  Institute  of  the  Arts  (CalArts)  in 
Valencia,  hired  Chicago  to  establish  and  codirect, 
with  Miriam  Schapiro,  another  feminist  art 


program."  The  CalArts  program,  which  contin- 
ued through  1975,  was  largely  modeled  after 
Fresno's  but  also  included  a  significant,  now- 
legendary  public  venue.  Womanhouse  was  a 
collaborative,  temporary  "art  environment" 
created  by  Chicago,  Schapiro,  and  twenty-one  of 
their  students  in  a  condemned  but  still  imposing 
Hollywood  mansion,  which  was  loaned  to 
the  group  by  the  city  of  Los  Angeles.  The  project 
took  six  weeks  to  create  and  was  open  to  the 
public  from  January  30  through  February  28, 
1972,  garnering  considerable  national  attention. 
Each  room  of  the  mansion  was  the  setting  for 
an  exploration  of  the  cultural  identity  of 
women — the  presumptions,  perceptions,  and 
expectations  that  the  culture  assigns  to  women. 
Today  Womanhouse  is  deemed  more  important 
for  the  example  it  set  than  for  the  specific 
works  created  there.  As  feminist  art  historian 
Arlene  Raven  points  out,  "Because  the  West 
Coast  became  a  model  and  leader  for  feminist 
production  nationally  and  internationally,  the 
influence  of  the  transitory  collaboration  at 
Womanhouse  has  been  pervasive  and  lasting."" 


limits  on  affirmative  action  programs.  Bakke,  a  white  male  who 

sought  admission  to  the  medical  school  of  the  University  of  California,  Davis,  claimed  he  was  passed  o^ 

er  in  favor  of  minority  and  women  applicar 

b                                                          c                                                          d 

e 

Judy  Chicago 

Judy  Chicago                                         Miriam  Schapiro                                  Marika  Contompasis 

Claire  Campbell  Park 

Georgia  O'Keeffe,  Plate  "1, 

Menstruation  Bathroom                      Night  Shade,  1986,  acrylic  and           Trout  MagnoUa  Kimono,  1977, 

Cycle,  1977,  coiled  raffia 

1979,  whiteware  with  china 

fromWomanhouse,  a                           fabric  collage  on  canvas                     wool  yarn,  loom  knitted 

paint 

Collaborative  Site-Specific 
Installation,  1972,  photo 
documentation  of  installation 

By  the  mid-1970s  Judy  Chicago  had 
become  a  leading  advocate  in  the  women's  art 
movement.  In  1979  Chicago,  aided  by  some  400 
volunteers,  exhibited  The  Dinner  Party,  a  vast 
triangular  dining  table  with  thirty-nine  place 
settings,  each  consisting  of  a  unique,  highly 
sculptural  ceramic  plate,  a  ceramic  goblet,  and 
an  embroidered  place  mat.  Each  honored  a 
woman  in  the  arts,  from  Artemisia  Gentileschi 
to  Georgia  O'Keeffe,  from  Sappho  to  Virginia 
Woolf  Controversial  since  its  debut,  championed 
by  many  but  criticized  by  antifeminists  and 
feminists  alike  on  the  basis  of  who  was  or  was 
not  included  and  for  its  pervasive  genital 
imagery,  it  remains  Chicago's  magnum  opus. 

The  paintings  of  Miriam  Schapiro  evolved 
during  the  1970s  from  works  inspired  by  some  of 
the  earliest  computer-generated  imagery,  reflect- 
ing her  early  interest  in  technology,  to  forms  and 
materials  historically  associated  with  women. 
Schapiro  became  interested  in  pattern  and  purely 


he  state  supreme 


court  upholds  Bakke's  claim  to  equal  opportunity     >    Proposition  13  passes  in  California,  rolling  back  property  taxes  and  thereby  defunding  governn, 


19  7  9    >    Harvey  Milk, 


decorative  elements  in  painting  at  a  time  when 
such  concerns  were  truly  heretical  to  the  prevail- 
ing formalism  of  the  New  York  art  world.  Her 
elaborate  patterning  and  sumptuous  decoration 
had  a  superficial  formalism  about  it,  but  she 
stressed  its  affinity  to  "feminine"  artistic  pursuits, 
such  as  quilting,  embroidery,  basketry,  pottery, 
fabric  painting,  and  other  decorative  arts  (all  tra- 
ditionally ranked  "minor"  in  a  hierarchy  crowned 
by  painting  and  sculpture).  Thus,  a  work  like 
Night  Shade,  despite  its  lack  of  discernible 
"subject  matter,"  has  an  implicit  and  pointedly 
feminist  content. 

In  1977  Suzanne  Lacy  and  Leslie  Labowitz, 
collaborating  with  dozens  of  other  women, 
staged  a  multifaceted  media  event  deliberately 
calculated  to  bring  out  the  television  news  crews 
and  newspaper  reporters,  which  it  succeeded  in 
doing.  Three  Weeks  in  May  was  a  form  of  street 
theater  that  utilized  performance  as  "a  vehicle 
for  establishing  an  empowering  network"  and 
brought  public  attention  to  violence  against 
women.'"  A  crusade  of  sorts,  it  included  public 
demonstrations  and  art  performances  through- 
out Los  Angeles,  as  well  as  a  large  map  pinpoint- 
ing the  location  of  all  the  reported  rapes  during 
the  period,  which  was  displayed  at  City  Hall. 


There  was  also  another,  more  introspective 
wing  of  the  women's  art  movement,  not  inimical 
to  the  pragmatic  political  outlook  of  such  exem- 
plars as  Chicago,  Schapiro,  Lacy,  and  Labowitz 
but  complementary  to  it.  Eleanor  Antin  was  a 
New  Yorker  who  relocated  to  Solana  Beach  in 
north  San  Diego  County  in  1968.  Surrounded  by 
a  beach  culture  and  new  individuals  and 
lifestyles,  she  began  to  consider  the  interplay 
between  self-identity,  the  immediate  world,  and 
the  larger  culture.  She  came  to  perceive  that 
self-realization  is  a  construct,  not  unlike  a  work 
of  art,  and  that  she  could,  to  a  certain  extent, 
re-create  her  "self" 


an  openly  gay  member  of  San  Francisco's  board  of  supervisors,  and  Mayor  George  Moscone  are  shot  to  death  in  City  Hall.  The  assailant,  a  former  police  officer,  was  convicted  of  murder  but  sentenced  to  only  5  ye 


Eleanor  Antin 

The  King  of  Solana  Beach  with 
young  Subjects,  from  The  King 
of Solana  Beach,  1974-75, 
gelatin-silver  print  mounted 
on  board 


Lynn  Hershman 

Roberta  Breitmore's 
Construction  Chart,  1973, 
chromogenic  development 


Antin's  first  effort  at  performing  another 
identity  was  to  envision  her  ideal  male  self — 
a  benevolent  patriarch,  a  king.  Donning  a  beard,  a 
cape,  a  pair  of  leather  boots,  and  a  grand  chapeau, 
Antin  became  the  King  of  Solana  Beach.  In  unan- 
nounced performances,  Antin  walked  among  her 
subjects  (accompanied  by  documenting  photogra- 
pher Phel  Steinmetz),  bestowing  greetings,  advice, 
and  good  wishes.  Over  the  next  decade,  she 
developed  several  personae — all  idealized  represen- 
tations of  her  imagined  selves — whose  fictitious 
personal  histories  became  the  subject  of  her  art. 

Other  women  artists  also  explored  the  pos- 
sibilities of  self-realization  through  their  art.  In 
1975  Bay  Area  conceptual  artist  Lynn  Hershman, 
whose  previous  work  took  many  forms  but  had 
usually  revolved  around  concepts  of  portraiture, 
began  a  three-year  project  in  which  she  acted 
out  the  life  of  an  invented  persona."  Roberta 
Breitmore  was  a  character  "so  fully  realized  that 
we  could  inspect  her  resume,  bank  statements, 
and  other  personal  data,  as  well  as  the  room  she 
lived  in."^°  The  irony  of  the  photographic  "map" 
titled  Roberta  Breitmore's  Construction  Chart  is 
that  it  suggests  that  Breitmore  is  not,  after  all, 
an  idee  fixe  with  a  prescribed  identity.  Rather, 
like  all  human  beings,  she  is  a  living  personaHty 
whose  amorphous  identity  merits  exploration. 

In  1976  Nancy  Angelo  and  Candace 
Compton  created  a  video  performance  titled 
Nun  and  Deviant  at  the  Woman's  Building  in 
Los  Angeles.  Early  in  the  piece,  Angelo  declares, 

/  am  an  artist. . .  I  am  changing,  and  my  work 
is  about  transformation . .  ■  My  work  is  about  me 
being  whatever  I  want  to  be.  It  is  having  permission 
to  say  what  I  want  to  say.  To  be  heard,  to  be 
seen,  to  be  loud.  My  work  is  moving  away  from 
self-obsession,  blindness,  dumbness,  towards  self- 
definition,  new  direction,  creation  of  fresh  order. 
[My  art]  is  about  expectation  and  redefinition.'^ 


ter  his  lawyers  successfully  argued  that  his  mental  capacity  was  diminished  by  his  junk-food  diet  (the  so-called  Twinkle  Defense). 


The  words  are  simple,  the  statement  clear 
and  direct,  yet  the  ideas  reflect  a  major  revolu- 
tion in  the  ideology  of  empowerment.  Angelo's 
statement  reflects  the  optimistic  belief  that  one 
can  and  should  change,  as  long  as  one  has  the 
insightfulness  to  do  so,  and  the  expectation  that 
change  is  for  the  better.  The  work  of  Antin, 
Hershman,  Angelo,  Compton,  and  many  others 
embodied  the  more  introspective  side  of  feminist 
practice,  getting  right  down  to  issues  of  identity, 
gender,  individual  potential,  and  self-realization. 

The  drive  toward  liberation  from  social 
constraints  and  empowerment  so  vibrant  in 
California  in  the  1960s  and  1970s  catalyzed  pro- 
found social  and  cultural  change  within  and 
beyond  the  art  world.  In  the  face  of  formidable 
conservative  opposition,  issues  of  identity, 
belonging,  and  full  enfranchisement  in  a  free 
society  were  articulated  and  proclaimed  for  an 
entire  generation.  In  the  ensuing  twenty  years, 
much  of  that  ideology  would  evolve  into  very 
different  cultural  concerns  and  new  perceptions 
of  American  values.  The  California  image 
would  continue  to  influence  the  national  and 
international  consciousness  of  contemporary 
life,  and  artists  would  again  play  a  dynamic  role 
in  that  process. 


1  "California:  A  State  of  Excitement,"  riiiic, 
Nov.  7,  1969,  60. 

2  John  V\I.  Caughey,  California:  History  of  n 
Remarkable  State,  4th  ed.  (Englewood  (Cliffs, 
N.J.:  Prentice-Hall,  1982),  417. 

3  Andrew  Rolle,  California:  A  History,  4th  cd. 
(Arlington  Heights,  111.:  Harlan  Davidson, 
1987),  506-7. 

4  See  Alaric  Valentin,  "Billy  Al  Bengston," 
Long  Board  magazine,  July  1997,  51-58. 

s  Laura  Meyer,  "From  Finish  Fetish  to 
Feminism:  Judy  Chicago's  Dinner  Party  in 
California  Art  History,"  in  Sexual  Politics: 
Judy  Chicago's  "Dinner  Party"  in  Feminist 
Art  History,  ed.  Amelia  Jones,  exh.  cat. 
(Los  Angeles:  ucla  at  the  Armand  Hammer 
Museum  and  Cultural  Center  in  association 
with  the  University  of  California  Press, 
Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles,  1996),  52. 

6  VvTien  Back  Seat  Dodge  38  was  exhibited 
at  the  Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art 
in  1966,  the  County  Board  of  Supervisors 
threatened  to  close  down  the  museum  if  the 
work  were  not  removed  from  the  exhibition. 
A  compromise  was  reached  allowing  gallery 
attendants  to  open  the  car  door  upon 
request,  but  only  when  minors  were  not 
present. 

7  Peter  Plagens,  Sunshine  Muse:  Art  on  the 
West  Coast,  1945-1970  (1974;  reprint,  Berkeley 
and  Los  Angeles:  University  of  California 
Press,  1999),  120. 

8  Rosalind  Krauss,  "Overcoming  the  Limits 
of  Matter:  On  Revising  Minimalism,"  in 
Studies  in  Modern  Art,  no.  1  (New  York: 
Museum  of  Modern  Art,  1991 ),  133. 

9  Turrell's  light  installations  require  more 
space  than  was  available  to  represent  him 
properly  in  this  exhibition.  It  was  essential, 
however,  to  acknowledge  his  achievement 
in  this  discussion. 

10  The  word  hippie  had  been  in  use  since 
the  early  1950s  as  a  synonym  for  hipster  or 
beatnik.  During  the  mid-1960s  it  took  on  new 
countercultural  connotations. 

11  The  Rock  and  Roll  Hall  of  Fame  and 
Museum,  /  Wiint  to  Take  You  Higher:  The 
Psyclicdclit  Em,  1965-1969  (San  Francisco: 
Chronicle  Books,  1997),  82. 

12  "Chicane  Glossary  of  Terms,"  in  Chicano 
Art:  Resistance  and  Affirmation ,  1965-1985,  ed. 
Richard  Griswold  del  Castillo,  Teresa  McKenna, 
and  Yvonne  Yarbro-Bejarano,  exh.  cat. 

(Los  Angeles:  Wight  Art  Gallery,  University 
of  California,  Los  Angeles,  1994),  361. 

13  See  Larry  R.  Ford  and  Ernst  Griffin, 
"Chicano  Park:  Personalizing  an  Institutional 
Landscape,"  Landscape  25,  no.  2  (1981):  42-48- 

14  For  an  excellent  discussion  of  the  history 
of  Asco,  see  Harry  Gamboa  Jr.,  "In  the  City 


of  Angels,  (Chameleons,  and  Phantoms: 
Asco,  a  Case  Study  of  Chicano  Art  in  Urban 
Tones  (or  A.sco  Was  a  Four-Member  Word)," 
in  Chicano  Art:  Resistance  and  Affirmation, 
ed.  del  Castillo,  McKenna,  and  Yarbro- 
Bejarano,  121-30. 

15  Faith  Wilding,  "The  Feminist  Art 
Programs  at  Fresno  and  CalArts,  1970-1975," 
in  The  Power  of  Feminist  Art:  The  American 
Movement  of  the  1970s,  History  and  Impact, 
ed.  Norma  Broude  and  Mary  D.  Garrard 
(New  York:  Harry  N.  Abrams,  1994),  34. 

16  California  Institute  of  the  Arts  was  created 
in  1961  through  the  incorporation  of  the 

Los  Angeles  Conservatory  of  Music  (est.  1883) 
and  Chouinard  Art  Institute.  Chouinard 
was  founded  in  Los  Angeles  in  1921  and  later 
funded  in  part  by  Walt  Disney  to  train 
students  in  filmmaking  and  related  arts. 

17  Arlene  Raven,  "Womanhouse,"  in  The 
Power  of  Feminist  Art,  ed.  Broude  and 
Garrard,  50. 

18  Josephine  Withers,  "Feminist  Performance 
Art:  Performing,  Discovering,  Transforming 
Ourselves,"  in  The  Power  of  Feminist  Art,  ed. 
Broude  and  Garrard,  171. 

19  Moira  Roth,  "Toward  a  History  of 
California  Performance:  Part  One,"  Arts 
Magazine  52  (Feb.  1978):  101. 

20  Withers,  "Feminist  Performance  Art,"  in 
The  Power  of  Feminist  Art,  ed.  Broude  and 
Garrard,  167. 

21  Transcribed  by  the  author  from  the 
videotape. 


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MANY  CALIFORNIAS    1980-2000 


J 


V 


Howard  N.  Fox 


The  countercultural  revolutions  of  the  1960s  and  1970s  propelled  a  growing 
national  fascination  with  California.  By  the  1980s  and  1990s,  as  California's 
social  and  cultural  mix  grew  ever  more  diverse,  multiple  views  of  the 
state  began  to  emerge.    Many  of  these  new  images  were  unlike  either  the 
white-bread  boosterism  of  Cahfornia's  promoters 
or  the  revolutionary  idealism  of  its  youth  move- 
ments, and  they  complicated  and  unsettled  many 
long-standing  notions  about  the  Golden  State. 
Some  of  what  percolated  through  the  popular 
consciousness  indeed  perpetuated  the  idea  of 
California  as  a  land  of  the  new  and  the  exotic: 
The  advent  of  the  personal  computer  and  its  ever 
more  breathtaking  technologies  was  centered  in 
"Silicon  Valley"  (in  the  northwest  quarter  of 
Santa  Clara  County,  south  of  San  Francisco  Bay); 
the  Internet  was  developed  in  part  at  ucla  and 


other  universities  in  California;  "fusion  cooking," 
which  might  cross,  say.  Thai  cuisine  with  Central 
American  ingredients  or  traditional  Japanese 
fare  with  nouvelle  French  techniques,  began  in 
California  and  quickly  became  an  international 
phenomenon. 

Even  as  California's  eclecticism  and  com- 
plexities received  greater  exposure,  however,  one 
vision  of  the  state  dominated:  an  almost  morbid 
fixation  with  California's  considerable  ills  and 
woes.  By  the  1980s  tabloid-style  television  news 
coverage  provided  round-the-clock  sensational- 
ism and  had  effectively  reimaged  California. 
Minutes  after  the  Loma  Prieta  earthquake  struck 
on  October  17, 1989,  the  shocking  images  of 
motorists  being  rescued  from  a  car  teetering  on 


David  Hockney 

The  Merced  River,  /osemite 
Valley,  California,  Septembe 
1982,  1982,  photo  collage 


The  original  Apple  Macintosh 
personal  computer,  1984 


Keith  Cottingham 

Triplets,  from  the  Fictitious 
Portraits  series,  1993, 
dye-coupler  print  from  a 
digitized  source 


B  8     >    Ronald  Reagan  is  elected  president.  The  former  actor  has  previously  served  two  terms  as  governor  of  California  and  made  two  prior  bids  for  the  Republican  presidential  nomination.     >    Silicon  Valle' 


b-'^Sft-S 


M   ^^ 


the  edge  of  a  collapsed  section  of  the  Bay  Bridge 
were  telecast  live  by  news  helicopters  over 
San  Francisco  Bay.  Horrific  visions  of  mayhem  and 
a  city  afire  were  broadcast  live  from  Los  Angeles 
via  satellite  worldwide  for  several  days  in  April 
1992,  when  communities  throughout  the  city 
combusted  in  racial  outrage  following  not-guilty 
verdicts  in  the  criminal  case  against  four  white 
policemen  accused  of  beating  a  black  man, 


Rodney  King.  The  astonishing  prime-time 
spectacle  on  June  17, 1994,  of  police  pursuing 
murder  suspect  O.  J.  Simpson's  white  Bronco 
from  Orange  County  to  the  Simpson  estate  in 
the  Brentwood  section  of  Los  Angeles  quickly 
spawned  a  daily  TV  diet  of  aerial  images  of 
high-speed  freeway  chases,  which  virtually 
became  a  local  spectator  sport.  The  tabloidized 
California  image  saturated  the  national  airwaves, 
with  pictures  of  gun-toting  schoolboys  and 
infant  victims  of  stray  bullets  in  gang-related 
drive-bys  and  shoot-outs;  of  El  Nino  water  walls, 
landslides,  drought,  and  catastrophic  forest  fires, 
some  set  by  arsonists,  from  Malibu  to  Monterey, 
of  preschool  teachers  charged  with  multiple 
child  molestation;  and  of  mass  suicides  in  bizarre 
religious  cults.  The  visions  of  California  that  the 
world  has  come  to  know  and  believe  are  all  but 
apocalyptic  and  routinely  have  made  the  state 
the  butt  of  late-night  TV  talk  show  jokesters. 

Time  magazine — not  an  arbiter  in  the 
matter  but  certainly  a  longtime  observer  of  the 
scene — may  serve  as  a  reliable  index  of  the 
changing  conception  of  California  in  American 
popular  culture.  In  its  November  7, 1969,  cover 
story,  Time  colorfully  labeled  California  the 
"state  of  excitement";  twenty-two  years  later,  on 
its  cover  of  November  18, 1991,  it  ominously 
brooded  about  California's  "endangered  dream"; 
and  on  April  19, 1993,  a  year  after  the  cataclysmic 
civil  unrest  of  the  Rodney  King  affair.  Time 
gravely  asked,  "Is  the  City  of  Angels  Going 
to  Hell?" 

Following  the  riots,  "much  of  what  seemed 
modern  and  alluring  about  Los  Angeles,"  Time 
opined,  "now  seems  terribly  shortsighted  and 
ugly . . .  Increasingly,  the  rest  of  America  hopes 
the  latest  in  L.A.  trends  will  stay  right  where  they 
started."'  Indeed,  the  idea  of  California  conjured 
up  by  the  image  of  Los  Angeles  had  become  so 
suspect — so  reviled — that  Pacific  Northwesterners 


by-10-mile  strip  of  land  in  Northern  California,  has  the  greatest  concentration  of  wealth  in  the  United  States.  This  area  In  Santa  Clara  County  is  home  to  some  1.700  high-tech  f.rms  engaged  ,n  mformation  technology 


Son  Francisco-Oa(<lQnd  B( 
Bridge  damaged  by  the 
Loma  Pneta  earthquake, 
San  Francisco,  1989 


Shop  owners  at  the  site  of  a 
building  leveled  during  the 
1992  Los  Angeles  riots 


The  low-speed  police  pursuit 
of  0.  J.  Simpson  on  a  Southerr 
ColiforniQ  freeway,  1994 


Anthony  Hernandez 

'2A,  1989,  from  the  series 
Landscapes  for  the  Homeless, 
silver  dye-bleach 
(Cibachrome)  print 


John  Gilbert  Luebtow 

April  29,  1992,  1992, 
glass  and  steel  cable 


Willie  Robert  Middlebrook 

In  His  "Own"  Image,  from  th( 
series  Portraits  of  My  People, 
1992,  sixteen  gelatin-silver 
prints 


Right  does  not  win  out  over  wrong;  God  did  create  man  in  iiis  own  image,  as  long  asyou're  not  Black. 
I  came  to  this  conclusion  from  the  first  time  I  heard  the  verdicts  that  were  handed  down  in  the 
King  Case  and  from  watching  and  listening  to  how  the  media  covered  the  aftermath  of  the  verdicts. 


WILLIE   ROBERT  MIDDLEBROOK 


Mediterranean  fruif  fly— Medfly— infestations  are  found  on  crops  in  Los  flngeles  and  Santa  Clara  counties.  Ground-based  programs  of  fruit  stripping  and  sterile  fly  release  are  instituted.     >    Robert  Schuller's  Cr/i 


Sharon  Lockhart 

Untitled  [Ocean],  1996, 
chromogenic  development 
print 


Intoe  Kim 

Death  Valley,  Sunrise,  Sand 
Dune,  1989,  printed  1994, 
geiatm-siiver  print 


Margaret  Honda 

Perennial,  1996,  fresh 
chrysanthemums,  stainless 


had  taken  to  actively  shunning  the  influx  of 
Californians  seeking  weekend  and  vacation 
homesteads.  A  popular  bumper  sticker  summed 
up  the  Oregonian  attitude  toward  a  botched 
California  that  they,  and  many  other  Americans, 
feared:  Don't  Californicate  Oregon. 

Clearly,  mythologies  were  changing  and 
dropping  away,  and  the  original  myth  of 
California  as  a  natural  paradise  was  among  the 
first  to  fall.  Many  of  the  state's  grand  expanses 
of  pristine  wilderness  became  casualties  of  their 
own  allure,  and  the  national  parks  were  trans- 
formed into  denaturalized  theme  parks.  There 
was  so  much  contention  about  the  invasion  of 
automobiles,  recreational  vehicles,  motorcycles, 
motorboats,  and  even  airplanes  into  the  wilds 
that  conservationist  groups  like  the  Sierra  Club 
lobbied — often  successfully,  as  in  the  case  of  sev- 
eral national  parks — to  limit  visitors  to  relatively 
small  tourist  zones,  while  true  wilderness  areas 
were  virtually  sealed  off  to  all  but  the  most 
intrepid  backpackers.  Such  measures  segregated 
humans  from  the  wilds  and  limited  access  to 
the  selfsame  locales  where  previously  people  had 
been  encouraged  to  commingle  with  nature. 
In  a  stunning  reversal  of  fortune  over  the  cen- 
tury, the  California  landscape  now  had  to  be 
isolated  in  truly  remote  areas  to  save  it. 

The  displacement  of  nature  had  repercus- 
sions in  the  visual  arts.  Fewer  artists  than  ever 
before  trained  their  primary  attention  on  the 
natural  world.  Those  who  did,  generally  operated 


hedral,  entirely  sheathed  in  mirrored  glass,  opens  in  Garden  Grove.     >    1  9  8  1     >    San  Diego  Trolley  opens  the  first  light  rail  line  to  the  U.S. -Mexico  border,  making  casual  trips  to  Mexico  more  convenient. 


Kris  Dey 

GyongyLafcy 

Sam  Maloof 

Ancho  II.  1991 

,  pair 

ted 

Evening,  1995,  London  plone 

Rocking  Chair,  1997,  cherry 

cotton  strips 

tree,  doweled 

wood  and  ebony 

apart  from  of  nature,  as  does  Los  Angeles-based 
Margaret  Honda,  who  has  sequestered  a  bit  of 
nature  inside  her  studio.  A  main  focus  of  Honda's 
ongoing  project  is  the  study  of  the  life  cycles  of  a 
box  tortoise  inside  an  elaborate  terrarium  that 
she  constructed.  Related  to  this  project  is  her 
ironically  titled  installation  Perennial,  in  which 
hundreds  of  freshly  cut  chrysanthemums  gradu- 
ally decay  in  a  shallow  container  of  water  that 
resembles  a  giant  petri  dish.  A  faint  sadness  under- 
lies Honda's  contemplative  art,  which  preserves 
life  while  accepting  mortality.  Nature  also  comes 
indoors  in  Gyongy  Laky's  Evening,  a  construction 
of  slender  tree  branches  that  resembles  an  open- 
worked  vessel,  and  in  Sam  Maloof 's  cherry  wood 
Rocking  Chair.  But  artists  who  represent  nature 
in  such  benign  ways  are  in  the  minority. 

Even  David  Hockney  (hardly  a  pessimist, 
rather  more  of  a  booster)  often  depicts  the 
California  landscape  as  distorted  and  fragmented. 
His  Merced  River,  Yosemite  Valley,  California, 
September  1982,  is  composed  of  multiple  photo- 
graphs pieced  together  to  form  a  single  view. 
Whether  photographing  the  sprawl  of  Los  Angeles, 
the  scruffiness  of  the  Mojave  Desert,  or  the 


19  8  2     >    Following  the  success  of  her  aerobics  studio  in  Beverly  Hills,  actress  and  activist  Jane  Fonda  releases  a  popular  exercise  video  that  moves  the  new  fitness  movement  into  the  mainstream  > 


splendors  of  the  Yosemite  Valley,  he  seems  to 
treat  the  California  landscape  as  if  it  had  been 
shattered  and  needed  to  be  put  back  together. 

In  most  artistic  representations  of  the  last 
twenty  years,  humans  and  nature  appear  roiled 
in  a  stormy  divorce.  Throughout  the  1980s  and 
1990s,  as  commercial  development  displaced 
natural  habitats  and  pushed  the  wilderness  ever 
farther  away;  as  environmental  mismanagement 
was  more  apparent;  and  as  California's  man- 
made  and  natural  disasters  became  the  televised 
erotica  of  popular  culture,  the  relationship  of 
man  to  nature  grew  increasingly  inimical  if  not 
outright  adversarial.  With  a  few  notable  excep- 
tions (such  as  the  1980  volcanic  explosion  of 
Mount  St.  Helens  in  Washington  State  and  the 
ravaging  of  Florida  and  Louisiana  by  Hurricane 
Andrew  in  1992)  there  was  no  finer  theater  of 
cruelty  between  man  and  nature  than  California. 
Like  the  media  and  its  audience,  artists  were 
transfixed  by  the  forces  that  traumatized  humans 
and  their  habitats  up  and  down  the  state. 


Los  flngeles  has  lost  75^  of  Its  automobile,  tire,  steel,  and  civilian  aircraft  Industries  In  the  previous  five  years.    >    19  84     >    The  summer  games  of  the  K«lii  Olympiad  are  held  In  Los  Rngeles 


Joel  Sternfeld 

After  a  Flash  Flood,  Rancho 
Mirage,  California.  1979, 
chromogenic  development 


Richard  Misrach 

T.  V.  Antenna,  Saltan  Sea, 
California,  1985,  printed  1996, 
dye-coupler  print 


Poster  for  the  film  Volcano, 
1997 


Joe  Deal 

Colton,  California,  from  tl 
portfolio  The  fault  Zone, 
1981,  gelatin-silver  print 


Exemplary  of  that  ghoulish  fascination 
is  Joel  Sternfeld  s  photograph  After  a  Flash 
Flood,  Rancho  Mirage,  California.  It  presents  the 
grisly  image  of  a  massive  heap  of  compostlike 
debris  vomited  up  into  an  idyllic  suburban 
backyard.  The  even  more  stealthy  menace  of 
seismic  upheaval  lurks  underground  in  vast 
regions  of  California,  atop  which  lie  some  of 
the  most  densely  populated  areas  of  the  nation. 
Joe  Deal's  Colton,  California  (from  the  portfolio 
The  Fault  Zone),  depicts  an  especially  rugged 
landscape.  Giant  boulders  loom  high  above  the 
piteously  vulnerable  houses  below.  To  any  sea- 
soned observer  the  situation  portends  inevitable, 
if  not  imminent,  disaster. 

Hollywood  films  followed  the  news  media 
in  playing  up  the  theme  of  nature's  vengeance 
against  Californians'  monumental  hubris. 
Volcano  {1997)  is  an  update  of  sensational  disas- 
ter films  of  the  1970s  such  as  Earthquake  (1974) 
but  with  a  twist:  The  La  Brea  Tar  Pits  become 


the  escape  valve  for  a  massive  underground 
ocean  of  boiling  magma  that  erupts,  taking  with 
it  the  adjacent  Los  Angeles  County  Museum 
of  Art  and  the  nearby  Beverly  Center,  an  upscale 
shopping  mall.  In  the  nature-as-monster  films 
Tremors  (1990)  and  its  sequel  Tremors  2: 
Aftershocks  (1996),  prehistoric  killer  worms, 
which  are  endowed  with  razor-sharp  teeth  and 
have  been  trapped  underground  for  eons,  are 
disinterred  in  an  earthquake  and  go  on  a  feeding 
frenzy  for  their  favorite  food,  human  flesh. 


19  8  5     >    Richard  Ramirez,  a  serial  rapist  and  murderer  known  as  the  Night  Staike 


ifies  Southern  California.  By  the  time  he  is  captured  13  people  are  dead.  Upon  receiving  a  death  sentence  Ramirez  says. 


Mike  Davis's  Ecology  of  Fear: 

Faith  Ringgold 

William  Leavitt 

Los  Angeles  and  the 

Double  Dutch  on  the  Golden 

Untitled,  1990, 

Imagination  of  Disaster, 

Gate  Bridge,  1988,  acrylic  on 

paper 

1998.  cover  illustrotion  by 

canvas,  printed,  dyed,  and 

James  Doolin 

pieced  fabric 

Mark  Klett  Sandow  Birk 

San  Francisco  Panorama  after  Bombardment  of  Fort  Point 

Muybridge  (detail),  1990,  1996,  oil  and  acrylic  on 

thirteen  gelatin-silver  prints  canvas 


f 

Catherine  Wagner 

Arch  Construction  IV,  George 
Moscone  Site,  San  Francisco, 
California,  1981,  gelatin- 


ECOLOGY 
0  F    FEAR 

III 

MIKE 

,.MVis 

It  was  not  only  artists  and  popular  culture 
that  reimaged  California.  In  his  book  Ecology 
of  Fear:  Los  Angeles  and  the  Imagination  of 
Disaster  (1998),  historian  Mike  Davis  debunks 
the  abundance  myth  of  Southern  California  as  a 
land  of  sunshine  and  oranges  with  a  backyard 
for  all.  Davis  replaces  that  fancy  with  his  vision 
of  a  land — largely  defined  as  the  Los  Angeles 
megalopolis — of  pervasive  natural  perils  and 
apocalyptic  natural  disasters,  criminally  negligent 
overdevelopment,  and  sociocuhural  dysfunction 
rooted  in  pandemic  racism  and  ethnic  mistrust 
of  the  Other.  Whither  went  Gidget?  On  the 
same  turf  where  bands  like  the  Beach  Boys 
sunnily  rhapsodized  about  an  endless  summer, 
Davis  pronounces  that  "no  other  city  seems  to 
excite  such  dark  rapture."^ 

Examining  the  urban  disaster  genre  in  a 
century's  worth  of  popular  literature  and  enter- 
tainment, Davis  asserts  that  the  destruction 
of  London  (fictionally  the  most  persecuted  city 
from  1885  to  1940,  after  which  it  was  supplanted 
in  literature  and  film  by  Los  Angeles)  was  imag- 
ined as  "equivalent  to  the  death  of  Western 
civilization  itself,"  whereas  "the  obliteration  of 
Los  Angeles,  by  contrast,  is  often  depicted  as, 
or  at  least  secretly  experienced  as,  a  victory  for 


civilization."'  By  way  of  evidence  Davis  observes 
that  in  the  movie  Independence  Day  (1996),  the 
"devastation  wreaked  by  aliens  is  represented 
first  as  tragedy  (New  York)  and  then  as  farce 
(Los  Angeles) . . .  [with]  a  comic  undertone  of 
'good  riddance.'""  The  "aliens"  Davis  refers  to 
here  are  from  outer  space,  but  in  his  analysis, 
the  "abiding  hysteria  of  the  Los  Angeles  disaster 
fiction ...  is  rooted  in  racial  anxiety,"  and  the 
"secret  meaning"  of  the  invasion  of  space  aliens 
is  a  barely  concealed  "racial  hysteria . . .  typically 
expressed  as  fear  of  invading  hordes  (variously 
yellow,  brown,  black,  red,  or  their  extra-terrestrial 
metonyms)."^ 

No  less  remarkable  than  the  role  reversal 
ascribed  to  nature  was  a  dramatically  revised 
perception  of  human  habitats.  California's  cities, 
which  earlier  in  the  century  had  been  touted 
nationally  to  prospective  residents  as  nestled  in 
the  bosom  of  an  easy  and  nurturing  Mother 
Nature,  might  now  be  accused  of  attempted 
matricide.  In  San  Francisco  Panorama,  for 
example,  photographer  Mark  Klett  takes  a 
second  look  at  the  city  as  depicted  by  Eadweard 
Muybridge  in  a  famous  panoramic  photograph 
of  1878  by  setting  up  his  own  camera  in  the  same 
spot  atop  Nob  Hill  in  1990.  Where  Muybridge 
captured  the  image  of  a  bustling  city  still  in  the 
process  of  taking  root  in  a  majestic  natural 
setting,  Klett  records  a  metropolis  covered  by 
mile  after  mile  of  urban  clutter  and  masses  of 
nondescript  high-rise  buildings,  all  vying  to 
block  out  whatever  remains  of  the  natural  vistas. 

In  California's  sprawling  urban  centers, 
especially  those  in  the  south,  where  most  people 
live,  the  demographic  patterns  suggest  less  a 
place  of  domesticity  than  something  closer  to 
nomadism.  Boosters  of  Los  Angeles  today 
proudly  proclaim  its  "multiculturalism":  In  1998, 
for  example,  the  Los  Angeles  Convention  and 
Visitors  Bureau  distributed  a  glossy  booklet 


featuring  a  series  of  "cultural  itineraries"  focusing 
on  African  American,  gay/lesbian,  Jewish,  Latino, 
and  Asian  cultures  and  neighborhoods.'  For  all 
its  diversity  and  long  history  of  ethnic  and 
cultural  overlap,  however,  Los  Angeles  is  one 
of  the  most  segregated  cities  in  the  world.  No 
melting  pot,  greater  Los  Angeles  is  regularly 
balkanized  and  rebalkanized  into  a  myriad  of 
shifting  enclaves  based  on  race,  nationality,  and 
ethnic  identity.  Population  groups  pull  up  roots 
and  seemingly  go  out  of  their  way  to  avoid  one 
another  throughout  the  Southland. 


1  Disneyland."    >    19  8  6     >    The  Immigration  Reform  and  Control  Act  passes  despite  prominent  opposition.  The  act  brings  sanctions  against  employers  who  knowingly  hire  undocumented  Mexican  workers     > 


The  pornography  industry,  based  in  the  suburban  San  Fernando  Valley,  comes  under  scrutiny  when  it  is  reported  that  Traci  lords,  one  of  the  main  stars,  has  made  most  of  her  films  while  a  minor.     >    Museum 


Judy  Fiskin 

Ron  Corbin 

Manuel  Ocampo 

Chris  Burden 

Untitled '195,  1982, 

from  the 

Untitled.  1990,  printed  1994, 

Untitled  (Ethnic  Map  of 

L.A.P.D.  Uniform,  1993, 

Dingbat  series,  gelat 

m-silver 

gelatin-silver  print 

Los  Angeles),  1987,  acrylic  on 

thirty  uniforms  and  thirty 

print 

canvas 

Beretta  handguns,  wools 
wood,  and  metal 

W^M 

■fli"^ 

tgaiKi..  i^*^  ^  ^  ^ 

'"     •^-   --'    ',,,'-  III- iirraiiir    ^ 

Watts,  for  example,  home  to  an  almost 
entirely  black  populace  in  the  1960s,  became  by 
the  mid-1990s  predominantly  Mexican  American. 
Little  Tokyo,  which  sits  just  south  of  City  Hall  in 
downtown  Los  Angeles,  is  currently  home  to  an 
elderly  and  dwindling  population  of  Japanese 
Americans  who  have  little  engagement  with  the 
nearby  "colonies"  of  artists  who  began  reclaiming 
and  inhabiting  factory  and  loft  buildings  in  the 
1970s.  Since  the  early  1980s  a  huge  population 
of  Taiwanese  and  mainland  Chinese  has  gathered 
in  Monterey  Park  and  Alhambra,  suburbs  that 
when  heavily  developed  in  the  1940s  and  the 
postwar  period  were  largely  Anglo.  In  1984  the 
community  of  West  Hollywood  incorporated  as  a 
separate  city,  nearly  one-third  of  whose  citizens 
were  gay  men.  Beginning  in  the  mid-1980s  a 
major  influx  of  relatively  affluent  South  Koreans 
settled  in  the  Mid-Wilshire  district,  establishing  a 
thriving  middle-class  economy.  One  result  has 
been  the  displacement  of  a  sizable  community 
of  Central  Americans,  many  of  whom  have 
moved  to  the  eastern  fringe  of  Hollywood,  where 
the  great  majority  of  the  resident  Armenian 
community  made  room  for  them  by  relocating 
to  suburban  Glendale. 

Although  such  demographic  shifts  cannot 
always  be  predicted,  the  familiar  pattern  of 
whole  neighborhoods  moving  on  as  people  of 
other  backgrounds  replace  them  is  a  historical 
commonplace  in  many  American  cities.  "White 
flight"  from  city  to  suburb  goes  back  at  least  to 
the  1950s  all  over  the  country,  but  it  is  played 
out  in  epic  proportion  in  Southern  California, 
where  the  flight  is  not  just  "white."  As  if  to 
prove  Mike  Davis's  theory  of  racial  hysteria, 
everybody  seems  to  want  to  move  away  from 
everybody  else. 

This  behavior  and  all  its  concomitant  ten- 
sions, animosities,  and  suspicions  is  addressed 
head-on  by  Philippine-born  California  artist 


ontemporary  Art  opens  on  Bunker  Hill,  ,n  downtown  Los  flngeles;  MOCfl's  Temporary  Contemporary  space  had  been  inaugurated  in  little  Tokyo  in  late  1983.  LflCMfl  opens  Robert  0   Hnderson  building  for  modern  and 


5>^/.WJ«^^ 


Manuel  Ocampo  in  his  Untitled  (Ethnic  Map  of 
Los  Angeles).  A  sardonic  parody  of  a  page  from 
the  Thomas  Guide — the  spiral-bound  street  atlas 
that  can  be  found  in  practically  every  operable 
car  in  Southern  California — the  painting  resem- 
bles a  crude  map  of  a  war  zone,  carving  the 
city  into  occupied  sectors.  Ocampo  labels  the 
territories  and  ironically  casts  shameful  epithets 
on  all  the  wrangling  factions:  "dykes  "  "kikes," 
"niggers,"  "beaners,"  "fags,"  "chinks,"  "nips,"  and 
so  on.  Equally  disconcerting,  though  oddly 
more  lighthearted  in  its  cartoonlike  style,  is 
Frank  Romero's  Freeway  Wars,  which  depicts 
the  occupants  of  two  automobiles  careening 
down  a  freeway  engaged  in  a  gunfight.  One  won- 
ders what  kind  of  peacekeeping  force  would  be 
needed  in  such  a  beleaguered  city.  Perhaps  it  is 
represented  by  Chris  Burden's  L.A.P.D.  Uniform, 
a  vast  installation  that  confronts  the  viewer 
with  an  intimidating  gauntlet  of  thirty  police 
uniforms,  each  a  grotesquely  authoritarian 


IttttTTt 


jontemporary  art.     >     1988     >    flutry  Museum  of  Western  Heritage  and  Museum  of  Jurassic  Technology  open  in  Los  flngeles,     >    San  Diego  County  razes  a  Mexican  migrant  workers  camp  called  Green  Valif 


'igil  is  held  to  dramatize  ttie  plight  of  homeless  Mexican  migrants.    >    19  8  9     >    B^ywatch  first  airs  on  NBC.  its  combination  of  lifeguards,  beautiful  women,  and  drama  on  the  beact)  eventually  re«ct)e$ 


Cliaz  Bojorquez 

Los  Avenues,  1987,  serigraph 


Graffiti,  East  Los  Angeles, 
1987 


Homies  action  figures, 
created  by  David  Gonzales 


Carlox  Almaraz 

Suburban  Nightmare,  1983, 
oil  on  canvas 


seven  and  a  half  feet  tall,  complete  with  a  Beretta 
handgun  and  a  badge  giving  license  to  use  it. 

Actually  labeling,  or  tagging,  entire  regions 
of  Los  Angeles  as  war  zones,  graffiti  scrawled 
by  gang  youths  became  as  much  a  part  of  the 
cityscape  as  the  buildings  it  was  written  on. 
Although  it  was  mosdy  Puerto  Rican  taggers  in 
New  York  City  who,  to  much  fame  and  infamy, 
turned  subway  cars  into  the  venue  of  choice 
during  the  1970s,  it  has  been  documented  that 
the  graffiti  tradition  in  the  United  States  took 
root  decades  earlier  in  the  Mexican  American 
neighborhoods  of  Los  Angeles.'  Chaz  Bojorquez, 
a  Los  Angeles-based  artist  and  former  tagger, 
uses  the  brush-painted  calligraphic  rhythms  and 
terse  gestures  of  old-time  graffiti  (from  the  days 
before  quick  spray-painting)  as  a  basic  element  in 
his  art.  His  serigraph  Los  Avenues,  in  which  a 
death's-head  cockily  sports  a  fedora  and  floats  on 
a  sea  of  graffiti,  captures  the  vital  energy  and 
deadly  force  that  looms  in  the  avenues  and  alleys 
of  the  barrios. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  the  portrayal  of 
gang  life  was  entirely  bleak:  a  wise,  winking 
humor  brought  California  and  the  nation 
"Homies"  (home  boys — neighborhood  boys  or, 
more  specifically,  gang  members).  These  tiny 
action  figures,  clad  head  to  toe  in  the  regalia  of 
knitted  caps,  bandanas,  T-shirts,  and  baggy 
pants,  were  sold  in  gumball  machines.  Their 
creator,  David  Gonzales,  maintains  that  Homies 
are  simply  caricatures  of  real  people  from  the 
barrios,  such  as  the  one  where  he  grew  up  near 
San  Jose.'  Los  Angeles  police  detectives,  however, 
tried  to  dissuade  vendors  from  selling  the 
figurines,  claiming  that  they  glamorized  violent 
gang  culture,  and  some  members  of  the  Latino 
community  agreed  that  the  dolls  perpetuated 
negative  stereotypes.' 

Not  only  cities  seemed  unsettled  in 
California.  The  tidy  ideals  of  the  middle-class 


white  suburb — homogeneity,  quiescence,  pros- 
perity— were  challenged  too.  There  is  a  long 
tradition  of  satirizing  American  suburbia.'" 
In  California,  however,  shifts  in  demographics 
actually  altered  the  complexion  and  the  concord 
of  daily  life  in  the  suburbs  and  led  to  a  changed 
image.  This  new  conception  was  reflected  in 
artistic  representations  of  the  suburban  dream. 
This  is  nowhere  more  hauntingly  repre- 
sented than  in  Suburban  Nightmarehy  Carlos 
Almaraz,  a  member  of  Los  Four  in  the  1970s.  The 
painting  depicts  a  row  of  three  identical  tract 
houses,  each  with  an  identical  car  parked  in  front. 
The  middle  house  is  being  consumed  by  a  fire, 
its  flames  lighting  up  the  sky  in  a  cataclysmic 
rage  of  color.  Although  it  is  possible  to  interpret 
the  painting  at  face  value,  as  a  captivating  picture 
of  a  burning  house,  it  can  also  be  thought  of 


an  audience  of  1  billion  in  over  140  countries.     >    The  6.9  magnitude  Loma  Prieta  earthquake  hits  Santa  Cruz  and  reverberates  outward.  San  Francisco's  Bay  Bridge  is  damaged  and  the  Nirnitz  freeway  collapses 


Todd  Gray  Enrique  Chagoya  Tseng  Kwong  Chi 

Goofy  (Body)  '6,  1993,  hand-  Mhen  Paradise  Arrived,  1988,  Disneyland,  California,  1979, 

varnished  gelatin-silver  print,  charcoal  and  pastel  on  paper  gelatin-silver  print 
installed  with  metal  bands 


metaphorically,  as  the  destruction  of  the  (white) 
American  Dream  by  forces  beyond  control. 
Almaraz's  painting  does  not  represent  a  changed 
neighborhood  so  much  as  the  vulnerability  of  a 
treasured  cultural  icon. 

In  California's  climate  of  social  and 
cultural  contentiousness,  even  Disneyland  and 
Disney  cartoon  characters,  once  emblems  of 
innocence,  could  take  on  sinister  new  overtones. 
In  Goofy  (Body)  #6,  a  black-and-white  photo- 
graphic manipulation  by  Todd  Gray,  Disney's 
lovable  hound  is  transformed  into  a  looming 
human-size  phantom,  immediately  familiar  but 
eerily  estranged.  In  a  comparably  large  drawing, 
Enrique  Chagoya  depicts  a  young  Latina  about 
to  be  flicked  off  the  face  of  the  earth  (or  at  least 
out  of  the  picture  plane)  by  a  giant  gloved  hand 
instantly  recognizable  as  that  of  Mickey  Mouse. 
The  wry  title.  When  Paradise  Arrived,  alludes  to 
the  imperiousness  of  corporate  American  culture 
and  its  alleged  disregard  for  minorities  and 
indigenous  peoples. 

For  that  matter,  indigenous  cultures  have 
not  eluded  ironic  role  reversals  either.  Native 
American  tribes,  for  example,  have  established 
Las  Vegas-style  gambling  casinos  on  reservations, 
land  set  aside  for  the  preservation  of  tribal  cul- 
tures. As  essayist  Richard  Rodriguez  has  noted, 
"The  part  of  me  that  I  will  always  name  Western 
first  thrilled  at  the  West  in  Vista  Vision  at  the 
Alhambra  Theater  in  Sacramento,  in  those  last 
years  before  the  Alhambra  was  torn  down  for  a 
Safeway.  In  the  kool  summer  dark,  I  took  the 
cowboy's  side.  The  odds  have  shifted.  All  over  the 
West  today  Indians  have  opened  casinos  where 
the  white  man  might  test  the  odds.""  While 
Indian  gaming  provides  considerable  revenue  for 
reservations  and  arguably  may  result  in  tribal 
self-sufficiency  and  cultural  stability,  modern 
casinos  are  surely  not  authentic  to  traditional 
tribal  cultures  or  identity.  If  the  example  of 


people  are  killed  and  property  damage  surpasses  ?6,4  billion,  making  this  the  costliest  earthquake  in  U.S.  history  and  one  of  the  country's  worst  natural  disasters.     >     1990     >    In  this  year,  almost  half  of  all 


California's  indigenous  tribes  adopting  the  style 
of  Las  Vegas  is  any  indication,  it  appears  that  the 
proud  celebrations  of  racial,  ethnic,  and  cultural 
identity  that  once  so  deeply  motivated  a  spectrum 
of  countercultural  revolutionary  ideals  in  the 
1960s  and  1970s  no  longer  inspire  such  unalloyed 
identification  with  the  happenstance  of  race, 
ancestry,  place  of  origin,  or  received  traditions. 
Following  the  empowerment  struggles  of 
the  1960s  and  1970s,  a  wholesale  reexamination 
of  the  determinants  of  individual  identity — an 
array  of  issues  often  called  "identity  politics" — 
became  a  compelling  topic  of  national  discussion 
in  cultural  and  political  life  in  the  United  States 
in  the  1980s  and  1990s.  In  its  early  phases  at 
least,  much  of  this  discourse  was  scripted  within 
the  University  of  California  system.  Countless 
young  Americans  were  asking  what  it  meant  to 
be  a  woman,  a  Latino,  an  African  American,  a 
Native  American,  a  Jew,  a  homosexual.  The  explo- 
rations that  emerged  are  hardly  unique  to  art  in 
California,  but  once  again,  the  state's  artists  were 
in  the  forefront  of  defining  the  issues  and  chart- 
ing the  trajectory  of  a  national  and  international 
direction  in  visual  art. 


immigrants  to  the  United  States  name  California  as  their  intended  residence     >    Hundreds  of  protesters  in  San  Ysidro  "Light  Up  the  Be 


'  with  car  headlights  to  decry  the  US.  government's  inability  to  stop  ill  ,1 


David  Levinthal 

Untitled  "3,  from  the  Barbie 
series,  1997-98,  dye-diffusion 
transfer  (Polaroid)  print 


John  Humble 

Selma  Avenue  at  Vine  Street, 
Hollywood,  January  25,  1991, 
1991,  printed  1995, 
chromogenic  development 
print 


Tim  Hawkinson  and 
Issey  Miyake 

jumpsuit,  from  Pleats  Please 
Guest  Artist  Series  No.  3, 
1998,  polyester 


Playboy  magazine,  June 
Baywatch  special  issue 


Robert  Williams 

California  Girl,  1985, 
on  imitation  brick 


Identity  starts  with  the  body:  Nothing 
could  be  more  universal  or  personal.  Any  discus- 
sion of  the  determinants  of  self-identity  must 
necessarily  address  the  body,  and  a  correlative  of 
identity  politics  was  the  emergence  of  corporeal- 
ity as  a  central  issue  in  the  arts  in  the  1980s  and 
1990s.  In  addition  to  the  philosophical  basis  of 
that  inquiry,  the  aids  crisis  (which  dispropor- 
tionately affected  the  art  world)  came  to  the 
fore  in  the  1980s  and  further  fostered  the  frank 
investigation  of  the  body  as  subject. 

California  was  fertile  territory  for  the 
theme  of  the  body  in  the  visual  arts.  Hollywood 
and  the  fashion  industry  had  long  promulgated 
popular  ideals  of  the  human  form,  particularly 
the  female  physique,  as  a  matter  of  worldwide 
commerce.  Body  type  is  equivalent  to  currency  in 


ligration  from  Mexico.  Counterprofesters  hold  up  mirrors,  turning  the  headlight  glare  back  onto  the  organizers.     >    Pete  Wilson,  the  first  Republican  governor  from  San  Diego,  is  elected.     >    flrmand  Hammer  Museum 


COlliCIORSSPiCIOl 


ViS! 


> 


'%:: 


these  industries,  and  certain  parts  of  Los  Angeles — 
Hollywood,  the  Sunset  Strip,  West  Hollywood — 
are  wallpapered  with  fashion  billboards  showing 
scantily  clad  youthful  models.  The  situation  is 
so  extreme  that  it  is  nearly  self-parodying. 
While  not  fashion  advertisements,  a  series  of 
billboards  featuring  the  curvaceous  Angelyne,  a 
"professional  celebrity"  who  hires  herself  out  to 
attend  swank  Tinseltown  parties,  was  ubiquitous 
throughout  Los  Angeles  in  the  1980s  and  1990s. 
One  of  these  ads  appears  in  John  Humble's 
photograph  Selma  Avenue  at  Vine  Street, 
Hollywood,  January  23,  1991.  Angelyne  is  not  a 
performer,  rather  she  is  a  "presence,"  which 
she  advertises  by  cruising  the  Sunset  Strip  in  a 
pink  Corvette  and  by  renting  billboards  bearing 
her  voluptuous  image.  Like  Mae  West  in  the 
1930s,  sexpot  Angelyne  is  virtually  a  female 
impersonator  and  functions  as  a  sort  of  inverted 
cultural  icon. 

The  conventionally  idealized  California 
body — healthy,  suntanned,  and  gorgeous — had 
long  been  a  worldwide  export  through  Hollywood 
films  and  television  and  may  have  attained  its 
apotheosis  in  the  television  series  Baywatch. 
Beginning  in  1989,  Baywatch  related  the  heroic 
exploits  and  romantic  escapades  of  a  squad  of 
lifeguards  on  the  beach  in  Southern  California 
(transplanted  ten  years  later  to  Hawaii).  It  is 
widely  acknowledged  that  the  show  appealed 
less  for  its  formulaic  story  lines  than  for  the 
bevy  of  almost  perfectly  formed,  mostly  Anglo, 


California  girls  and  guys  who  appeared  in  highly 
revealing  beachwear  cavorting  through  their 
weekly  adventures.  But  at  the  same  time  that 
Baywatch  prevailed  as  the  most  popular  television 
series  ever  (with  1  billion  viewers  and  distribu- 
tion in  140  countries),  many  artists  in  California 
(and  around  the  world)  were  deahng  with  more 
normal  bodies — bodies  that  didn't  conform  to 
the  California  ideal:  Bodies  that  are,  for  example, 
differently  colored  or  proportioned;  that  might 
be  "imperfect"  or  abnormal  to  begin  with;  that 
are  subject  to  psychological  insult  and  physical 
injury;  that  grow  old;  that  become  diseased; 
that  die. 

Laura  Aguilar's  Nature  #7  Self-Portrait 
shows  the  artist  from  the  back  sitting  nude  on 
the  desert  floor.  Her  rounded,  hulking  form  is 
visually  echoed  in  the  shape  of  the  rocks  that 
surround  her.  One  of  the  few  artists  of  the  period 
to  assert  an  identity  in  tune  with  nature,  she 
presents  herself  as  a  kind  of  timeless  earth 
mother.  Aguilar  intended  this  work  as  an  homage 


opens  in  Wesfwood.     >    Numerous  demonstrations  and  public  disruptions  mark  the  Sixth  International  AIDS  Conference  in  San  Franc 


as  the  AIDS  Coalition  to  Unleash  Power  (flCT-UP)  gains  visibility,     > 


Laura  Aguilar  Robin  Lasser  and 

Nature  "7 Self-Portrait,  1996,  Kathryn  Silva 

gelatin-silver  print  Extra  Lean,  1998,  ii 


Enrique  Martinez  Celaya 

Catherine  Opie 

Georganne  Deen 

Liz  young 

Map,  1998,  oil  on  fabric  over 

Setf-Portrait,  1993, 

Mary's  Lane:  Family  Room, 

The  Birth/Death  Chair  with 

canvas 

chromogenic  development 

1993,  oil  on  linen 

Rawhide  Shoes,  Bones,  and 

(Ektacolor)  print 

Organs,  1993,  choir,  rawhid 
shoes,  and  cast  iron,  bronze 
and  lead 

to  Northern  California  portrait  photographer 
Judy  Dater,  whose  sitters  express  a  diversity  of 
sexual  orientations  and  lifestyles.  Catherine  Opie 
likewise  explores  the  body  and  aspects  of  sexual 
identity.  To  create  her  arresting  and  wrenching 
photograph  Self-Portrait,  Opie  had  a  friend  carve 
an  image  into  her  (Opie's)  back  with  a  scalpel. 
The  resulting  picture  (which  resembles  a  child's 
drawing,  except  that  the  medium  is  blood 
seeping  from  Opie's  cut  skin)  depicts  two  girls 
standing  in  front  of  a  house.  The  photograph 
of  this  act  of  scarification  documents  a  physical 
injury  and  evokes  a  deep  psychological  pain.  Opie, 
a  lesbian  who  was  practicing  sadomasochism 
during  the  time  the  photograph  was  made, 
recently  commented  that  making  the  work  was 
partly  a  private  gesture  of  reconciliation  with 
herself  and  partly  a  public  gesture  toward  social 
acceptance.'^ 

The  body  is  a  frequently  recurring  theme 
in  the  work  of  performance  artist  and  sculptor 
Liz  Young.  In  The  Birth/Death  Chair  with 
Rawhide  Shoes,  Bones,  and  Organs,  Young's  chair 
looks  like  a  traditional  birthing  chair,  yet  its 
straps  and  braces  also  suggest  an  instrument  of 
confinement  in  which  one  might  be  tortured, 
or  worse.  On  the  floor  near  the  chair  are  metal 
castings  shaped  like  kidneys,  lungs,  spleen,  liver, 
and  heart,  an  ensemble  of  human  viscera  linked 
along  a  spine  of  heavy  chain.  A  pair  of  rough 
leather  shoes  at  the  foot  of  the  chair  evokes  the 
presence  of  an  invisible  sitter.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  know  a  central  fact  of  the  artist's  life — that  she 
has  been  wheelchair-bound  since  the  age  of 
eighteen,  when  she  was  paralyzed  from  the  waist 
down  in  an  automobile  accident — to  perceive  the 
suggestion  of  a  body  constrained  by  circum- 
stance and  fate. 


malls,  two-story  L-shaped  corner  buildings,  reacti  2000  in  number.  These  mini-malls,  widely  popular  in  Los  flngeles,  are  known  for  their  extraordinary  cultural  diversity  and  serve  as  business  and  community  centers.    > 


19  91     >    Boy!  N  the  Hood,  the  first  film  by  African  American  director  John  Singleton,  is  widely  praised  for  its  honest  look  at  violence  and  gang  life  as  facts  of  growing  up  in  South  Central  Los  Angeles.     > 


Rachel  Lachowicz 

Sarah '3,  1994,  lipstick  and 
wax 


Alexis  Smith 

Madame  X,  1982, 
collage 


Super  Sister,  1999,  polyeste 
resin  and  glass  beads 


Gaza  Bowen 

The  American  Dream,  1990, 
neoprene,  sponge,  clothespins, 
found  objects,  plywood,  press- 
board,  and  kidskin 


Amelia  Mesa-Bains 

Venus  Envy:  Chapter  One 
(or  The  First  Holy  Communion 
Moments  before  the  End), 
1993,  vanity  table,  chair, 
mirror,  and  mixed  media 


f 

Erika  Rothenberg 

America's  Joyous  Future,  1990, 
Plexiglas  and  aluminum 
display  case  with  plastic 


s  fires  kill  25  people  and  gut  1,800  homes  In  one  of  the  worst  urban  firestorms  of  the  century.     >     19  9  2     >    Riots  erupt  in  Los  flngeles  on  April  29,  after  the  acquittal  of  four  police  officers  accused  of  brutally 


beating  motorist  Rodney  King,  leaving  51  dead,  2,116  injured,  6,345  arrested,  and  3,767  structures  burned. 


and  Diane  Feinstein  are  elected  U.S. 


the  first  time  two  women  repress 


Closely  related  to  art  dealing  with  the  body 
is  art  dealing  with  aids.  Lari  Pittman  is  one  of 
the  foremost  American  painters  to  explore  issues 
relating  to  a  gay  lifestyle  and  sexual  identity.  His 
Spiritual  and  Needy  is  from  a  series  that  reflects 
his  discontent  with  gay  promiscuity,  with  straight 
responses  to  the  aids  crisis,  and  with  what  he 
views  as  a  general  profligacy  and  excessiveness  in 
aspects  of  American  life.  The  dominant  image  is 
an  outrageously  and  exquisitely  decorative  ren- 
dering of  an  inflamed  anus  awaiting  lubrication 
from  a  pitcher  of  oil.  The  dominant  motif  is  fever: 
a  thermometer  glows  ruby  red;  a  fire  roars  in  a 
fireplace;  flames  and  heat  radiate  everywhere.  The 
work  is  suffused  with  too  much  passion,  too  much 
anger,  too  much  need,  too  much  of  "too  much." 
For  his  part,  Masami  Teraoka  brought  some  levity 
to  his  commentary  on  the  aids  crisis  in  Geisha 
and  AIDS  Nightmare,  but  his  cross-cultural  art 
(combining  contemporary  content  with  tradi- 
tional Japanese  style)  serves  as  a  reminder  that 
aids  is  not  restricted  to  persons  of  one  particular 
sexual  orientation,  race,  or  nationality — a  lesson 
well  learned  by  California  and  the  nation  when 
Los  Angeles  Lakers  basketball  hero  Earvin  "Magic" 


fJ\Wbl 


iUKf^DEHH 


>    Japanese  flmehcan  National  Museum  opens  In  Little  Tokyo,  Los  flngeles.     >    199  3     >    Museum  of  Tolerance  opens  in  Los  flngeles  at  the  Simon  WIesentttal  Center  for  Holocaust  Studies 


Masoml  Teraoka 

Albert  J.  Winn 

AIDS  awareness  mar 

Geisha  and  AIDS  Nightmare, 

Akedah,  1995,  gelatm-silver 

San  Francisco,  1987 

1990,  WQtercolor  on  paper 

print 

Lari  Pittman  John  Sonsini 

Spiritual  and  Needy,  1991-92,  Mad  Dog  "Andreas"  Maines, 

acrylic  and  enamel  on  wood  1995,  oil  on  canvas 


Mike  Kelley 

Frankenstein,  1989,  found 
stuffed  animals  and  basket 


Johnson  announced  that  he  was  infected  with 
the  HIV  virus. 

MortaHty  as  the  final  consequence  of  being 
born  and  Hving  a  Hfetime  in  one's  body  is  an 
idea  that  pervades  the  work  of  Mike  Kelley. 
His  Frankenstein,  an  assemblage  made  of  thrift 
store  plush  toys,  expresses  the  artist's  occasional 
preoccupation  with  corporeality  as  well  as  an 
attitude  (true  to  his  Catholic  background) 
implicit  in  much  of  his  work  from  the  period 
that  humans  are  born  imperfect,  as  if  fallen  from 
an  ideal.  For  Kelley,  the  body  is  the  basis  of  iden- 
tity. Like  Frankenstein's  creation,  all  humans  are 
botched  from  the  outset,  at  once  laughable  and 
pitiable,  even  monstrous. 


studios  opens  CityWalk,  a  retail  promenade  designed  by  Jon  Jerde.     >    19  94     >    fl  6.8  magnitude  earthquake  centered  in  Northrldge  kills  57  and  causes  over  ?10  billion  In  property  damage.     >    Nicole  Brown  : 


Robert  Arneson 

California  Artist,  1982, 
stoneware,  glazed 


Viola  Frey 

He  Man,  1983, 


Issues  of  identity,  then,  are  indivisible 
from  the  body,  a  circumstance  that  readily  fosters 
stereotyping.  The  word  stereotype  is  defined  as 
"a  simplified  and  standardized  conception  or 
image  invested  with  special  meaning  and  held  in 
common  by  members  of  a  group.""  The  concept 
is  clear,  but  the  notion  of  "special  meaning"  is 
fraught  with  ambiguity.  To  whom  is  the  meaning 
special?  To  the  observer  or  to  the  observed? 
Who  is  defining  whose  identity  and  through 
what  insight?  That  gray  zone  has  been  the  locus 
of  numerous  artistic  explorations — some  playful, 
others  full  of  misgiving — into  identity  issues  in 
California. 

A  prevalent  stereotype  in  American 
culture  is  the  fearless  and  stalwart  masculine 
breadwinner,  a  notion  that  suffered  a  serious 
blow  in  the  wake  of  feminism.  Robert  Arneson, 
a  pioneer  in  Pop  art  ceramics,  lampooned  his 
own  cultivated  persona  as  a  scampy  Bay  Area 
bohemian,  a  counterculture  carryover,  in 
California  Artist.  The  sculpture  is  a  life-size 
self-portrait  in  which  the  figure's  hairy  potbelly 
protrudes  from  his  denim  jacket  and  inelegantly 
rests  on  a  crumbling  pedestal.  At  the  base  a  beer 
bottle  and  a  marijuana  plant  attest  to  an  "arty" 
lifestyle,  while  holes  in  the  eyeglasses  satirically 
hint  at  the  artist's  airheadedness.  Viola  Frey, 
another  ceramist  with  Pop  art  affinities,  looked 
to  the  other  end  of  the  social  scale  in  her  corpo- 
rate suit-and-tie  businessman,  the  nine-foot-tall 
He  Man,  a  cartoonish  giant  to  be  scoffed  at. 
More  anxious  and  less  parodic  is  Jonathan 
Borofsky's  Flying  Man  with  Briefcase,  at  No. 
2816932,  in  which  a  silhouetted  figure — another 
anonymous  urban  type  in  standardized  business 
attire — floats  as  if  he  were  the  disembodied  or 
estranged  ghost  of  a  "real"  self 


Ronald  L.  Goldman  are  found  stabbed  to  death  outside  her  Los  flngeles  home.  0.  J.  Simpson,  famed  football  star  and  Nicole  Simpson's  ex-husband,  is  the  prime  suspect.  In  the  ensuing  trial,  Simpson  is  acquitted  of 


Charles  Ray 

Male  Mannequin,  1990, 
fiberglass  mannequin 


Jonathan  Borofshy 

Flying  Man  with  Briefcase, 
at  No.  2816932,  1983-86, 
multiple  sculpture,  painted 
Gotorfoom 


Christina  /.  Smith 

The  Commitment,  1997, 
sterling  silver 


murder.     >    California  voters  pass  Proposition  187,  denying  undocumented  workers  access  to  social  services.     >    Orange  County  declares  the  biggest  municipal  bankruptcy  filing  in  U.S.  history.     >     19 


Candace  Kling 

Enchanted  Forest,  1989, 
buckram,  Varaform,  cording, 
Polyfil,  satin,  braze  rods, 
and  epoxy 


Ina  Koiel  Ana  Lisa  Hedstrom 

Our  Lady  of  Rather  Deep  Video  Meave  Kimono,  1982, 

Maters,  1985,  urethone  foam  silk  crepe  de  chme,  resist 

and  hand-pamted  silk  dyed 


Not  all  of  the  interest  in  identity,  types, 
and  cultural  idioms  was  satiric  or  ironic;  indeed, 
some  artists  dynamically  engaged  the  artistic 
traditions  and  symbols  of  cultures  outside  their 
own  in  a  quest  for  new  sources  of  inspiration. 
Along  with  the  emergence  of  the  counterculture 
in  the  1960s,  there  came  a  revival — which 
persists  in  American  cuhure — of  the  handcraft 
tradition.  Led  largely  by  middle-class,  college- 
educated  whites,  the  revival  initially  stressed 
traditional  forms,  back-to-basics  techniques,  and 
natural  materials.  In  the  1980s  and  1990s,  how- 
ever, as  ethnic  assertions  became  more  integral  in 
American  social  life,  a  sizable  constituency  of  the 
American  craft  movement  integrated  the  styles, 
techniques,  and  motifs  of  many  different  cultures 
into  their  work.  Ana  Lisa  Hedstrom's  Video 
Weave  Kimono  combines  timeless  Japanese 
hand  dyeing  with  a  postindustrial  sensibility, 
while  Jean  Williams  Cacicedo's  Tee  Pee:  An  Indian 


San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art  celebrates  its  60th  anniversary  with  the  grand  opening  of  a  new  building.     >    Smoking  ban  goes  Into  effect  In  most  Indoor  workplaces  In  California,  Including  the  nonbar  areas  of 


K.  Lee  Manuel 

Maat's  \Nmg  °J,  1994,  pan 
feathers 


Jean  Williams  Cacicedo  Janet  Lipkin 

lee  Pee.  An  Indian  Dedication,  Santa  Fe  Cape  "2,  1987,  wool 

1988,  wool,  felted,  hand  dyed,  knit,  hand  dyed 
reverse  appliqued 


Dedication  includes  references  to  early  Native 
American  life.  These  are  examples  of  artists  of 
one  culture  adopting  and  reinterpreting  the 
markers  of  other  cultures  with  respectful  appre- 
ciation. Similar  tendencies  are  apparent  in  the 
use  of  ancient  Egyptian  motifs  in  K.  Lee 
Manuel's  Maat's  Wing  #3,  and  in  the  confluence 
of  imagery  of  the  American  Southwest  with 
geometrical  designs  evocative  of  African  textiles 
in  Janet  Lipkin's  Santa  Fe  Cape  #2.  Such  open- 
armed  receptivity  to  various  visual  vocabularies 
was  relatively  free  of  ironic  positioning,  and  it 
enriched  and  complicated  the  handcraft  revival 
on  the  West  Coast  with  pronounced  interna- 
tional influences. 

Respectful  adaptations  notwithstanding, 
concepts  and  the  markers  of  identity  became 
prickly  issues.  As  the  image  of  California — and 
especially  Southern  California — continued  to  shift 
from  that  of  a  bastion  of  white  middle-class  citi- 
zenry to  a  contested  and  culturally  diverse  society, 


sstaurants.    >    Labor  officials  raid  a  garment  manufacturer  in  El  Monte,  where  72  Thai  immigrants  are  kept  behind  barbed  ' 


996 


California  voters  pass  Proposition  209,  barring  the  use 


Bruce  and  Norman  yonemoto        •  Travis  Somerville 

Golden,  1993,  gold  leaf  on  Untitled  (Dixie),  1998,  oil  and 

projection  screen  collage  on  ledger  paper 


Ruben  Ortiz-Torres 

California  Taco,  Santa 
Barbara,  California,  1995, 
silver  dye-bleach 
(Cibachrome)  print 


Guillermo  Gomez-Peiia 

Border  Brujo,  1990, 
photo  documentation  of 
performance 


Einar  and  Jamex  de  la  Torre 

Martey  Venus,  1997,  glass 
and  mixed  media 


£i 


the  act  of  asserting  and  advocating  gender,  race, 
ethnicity,  or  national  origin  as  the  fundamental 
basis  of  identity  began  to  seem  uncomfortably 
close  to  advocating  (gender,  racial,  ethnic,  or 
national)  stereotyping  itself.  Many  younger  artists 
came  to  understand  American  society  and  their 
identity  within  it  as  more  complex  and  hybrid 
than  an  essentialist  interpretation  could  sustain. 

Bruce  and  Norman  Yonemoto,  video 
artists  and  filmmakers  from  Los  Angeles,  have 
long  explored  their  Japanese  and  American 
backgrounds  in  works  such  as  their  mock  soap 
operas  and  gay  pornographic  films.  Golden 
consists  of  a  portable  film  projection  screen,  like 
the  kind  used  in  grade  school  classrooms.  The 
Yonemotos  have  covered  their  screen  in  gold 
leaf,  punning  verbally  on  the  Hollywood  "silver 
screen"  of  their  American  upbringing  and  visu- 
ally on  the  gilded  screens  of  their  Asian  heritage. 

Born  in  Mexico,  Los  Angeles  artist  Ruben 
Ortiz-Torres  is  similarly  interested  in  his  dual 


orqenderas  a  criterion  for  university  admission  or  state  employment.  Minority  enrollment  plummets  at  University  of  California  campuses.     >    Sklrball  Cultural  Center  opens  in  Los  flngeles  as  an  expansion  of  the 


background  and,  more  generally,  in  the  cultural 
ambiguities  of  life  in  Southern  California.  His 
photograph  California  Taco,  Santa  Barbara, 
California,  documents  the  incongruity  of  a  blond 
girl  in  traditional  Mexican  dress  riding  in  a 
parade  float  shaped  like  a  giant  taco.  Although 
the  float  may  be  thought  of  by  an  outsider  as  an 
innocuous  icon,  using  a  taco  to  represent 
Mexican  culture  is  akin  to  representing  African 
American  culture  with  a  watermelon,  and  smacks 
of  insensitive  stereotyping.  Rather  than  assailing 
the  stereotype,  however,  the  photograph  reveals 
the  artist's  ironic  bemusement. 

Ortiz-Torres's  Alien  Toy  (1997)  similarly 
focuses  on  a  stereotype  of  Chicano  culture — the 
lowrider.  This  plaything  for  "aliens,"  a  life-size  car 
painted  in  typical  lowrider  fashion,  mimics  the 
classic  hydraulic  lifts  and  spins  of  tricked-out 
lowriders  but  with  highly  exaggerated  results. 
The  custom-made  contraption  bounces,  gyrates, 
and  whirls  around,  flinging  itself  into  pieces  that 
must  be  put  back  together  to  perform  its  wildly 
comic  dance  anew.  The  absurdity  of  this  piece 
implies  that  taking  the  "special  meaning"  of  any 
stereotype  too  seriously,  or  of  treating  a  cultural 
icon  too  sanctimoniously,  is  itself  absurd. 


Skirball  Museum,  founded  in  1972.     >     1997     >    The  bodies  of  39  Heaven's  Gate  cult  members  are  found  in  an  upscale  San  I 


Jburb  after  a  gr 


The  nev/  940,000-square-foot  Getty  Ce  , 


Alison  Soar 

Topsy  Turvy,  1999,  wood,  tai 
plaster,  fabric,  and  ceiling  t 


Mildred  Howard 

Black  Don't  Crack.  1997, 
mixed-media  assemblage 


Alison  Saar  is  of  mixed  African,  Irish,  and 
Native  American  heritage  but  is  often  "classified" 
as  African  American.  Her  enigmatic  Topsy  Turvy 
incorporates,  among  other  elements,  a  life-size 
effigy  of  a  pickaninny.  The  title  suggests  that  the 
figure  may  represent  the  character  Topsy  from 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe's  abolitionist  novel, 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  (1852).  The  child  hangs  upside 
down  above  the  viewer,  her  feet  nailed  into  the 
ceiling  and  her  dress  hanging  down  over  her 
torso.  The  tableau  evokes  an  act  of  violence, 
something  like  a  lynching,  in  which  Saar's  pick- 
aninny is  suspended  in  a  kind  of  limbo,  displaced 
and  alien,  as  are  all  stereotyped  individuals. 

In  another  startling  displacement  based 
on  stereotyping,  James  Luna,  a  Native  American 
of  the  Luiseno/Diegueiio  people,  presented  The 
Artifact  Piece  (1987).  The  project  appeared  within 
an  anthropological  exhibit  of  American  Indian 
culture  at  San  Diego's  Museum  of  Man.  After 
viewing  dioramas,  which  "miniaturize  good 
Indians,  going  about  their  benign  ways,  as  seen 
through  the  museum  haze  that  forgets  colonial 
disruption  and  destruction,""  visitors  happened 
upon  Luna,  supine  on  a  display  table  with  only 
his  loins  covered.  The  impact  of  the  piece  derived 
from  viewers'  sudden,  shocked  realization  that 
they  were  staring  at  a  live  human  being.  Luna's 
presentation  of  himself  as  if  he  were  an  object 
ironically  recalls  the  Painted  Desert  exhibit  at 
the  1915  Panama-California  Exposition  (also 
held  in  San  Diego),  in  which  Native  Americans 
were  put  on  display  going  about  "typical" 
domestic  chores  in  "typical"  domestic  settings. 
Luna's  performance  demonstrates  that  Native 
Americans,  as  well  as  other  ethnic  groups,  are 
similarly  depersonalized  and  objectified  in 
contemporary  California. 

Perhaps  nowhere  else  in  the  LJnited  States 
have  the  issues  of  race,  ethnicity,  and  national 
origin  and  identity  come  together  more  potently 


igned  by  Richard  Meier,  opens  in  Los  flngeles,     >    Julia  Butterfly  Hill  climbs  180  feet  up  an  ancient  redwood  tree  in  Northern  California  to  protest  logging  of  old-growth  forests.     >    1998     >    The  Sierra  Club  votes  to 


David  Avalos  and 
Deborah  Small 

Mis-ce-ge-NATION.  1991, 
mixed-media  installation 


James  Luna 

The  Artifact  Piece,  1987, 
documentation  of 
performance 


Linda  Nishio 

Kikoemasu  ka?  (Can  /ou  Hear 
Me?),  1980,  twelve  gelatin- 
silver  prints 


than  in  the  matter  of  immigration  in  California 
in  the  1980s  and  1990s.  California  was  not  alone 
in  receiving  an  influx  of  foreigners  during  this 
period:  Houston,  Miami,  Chicago,  and  New  York 
were  also  magnets  for  various  groups  from 
regions  around  the  world.  Yet  California  was 
perceived  nationally  as  ground  zero,  the  locus  of 
a  profound  demographic  shift  in  the  national 
makeup  (in  much  the  same  way  that  New  York 
City  was  viewed  in  the  late  nineteenth  and  early 
twentieth  centuries,  when  it  was  the  site  of  mas- 
sive waves  of  immigration  from  Ireland, 
Germany,  Italy,  eastern  Europe,  and  Russia). 
California,  and  especially  Los  Angeles, 
became  the  golden  gate  of  entry  for  huge 
numbers  of  Koreans,  Taiwanese,  Japanese, 
Vietnamese,  Cambodians,  Laotians,  Burmese, 
and  Filipinos,  all  of  whom  now  represent  major 
population  groups  in  Southern  California.  The 
region  also  became  a  gathering  point  for  many 


ii  A 


^  1^ 


KI-KO-E-MA-SU  KA? 


advocate  limits  on  births  and  immigration  as  a  means  to  stabilize  the  U.S.  population.  This  is  perhaps  the  most  divisive  decision  in  the  century-old  California  environmental  group's  history.    >    19  9  9     >    The  ?400  i 


Peter  Coin 

Impenetrable  Border,  1987, 
gelatin-silver  print 


Insurgent  Squeegee 

Stop  the  Fence— Open  the 
Border,  1979,  screenprmt 
poster  by  Lincoln  Cashing  in 
collaboration  with  Groundwork 
Books,  San  Diego 


Malaquias  Montoya 

,SiSePuede<,  1988-89, 


Armando  Roscon 

Border  Metamorphosis: 
The  Binational  Mural  Project 
c.  1998,  documentation  of 
art  project 


(post-revolution)  Iranian  emigres,  as  well  as 
Israelis,  Russians,  Armenians,  and  Africans  of 
many  nationalities.  California  represented  a  land 
of  opportunity  for  people  from  every  region 
of  Central  America.  But  it  was  undocumented 
Mexicans  who  generated  the  most  notice  and 
notoriety,  engendering  impassioned  responses  in 
the  United  States  and  in  Mexico.  The  border  with 
Mexico  is  one  of  the  most  salient  aspects  of  life 
in  Southern  California,  and  the  issues  that 
emanate  from  it  encompass  the  relation  of  peo- 
ple to  the  California  landscape  and  a  whole 
gamut  of  questions  concerning  identity  in  a  cos- 
mopolitan society.  The  border  has  also  become  a 
quintessential  element  in  the  national  perception 
of  California,  especially  with  regard  to  what  the 
state's  experience  portends  for  the  nation. 
With  respect  to  modern  California's 
relationship  to  the  historical  region,  Richard 
Rodriguez  recounts  that  as  a  boy  he  had  read 
Richard  Henry  Dana's  Two  Years  before  the  Mast 
(1840)  and  was  struck  by  the  romanticism  of 
the  book: 

Twenty- five  years  ago  [in  the  early  1970s]  in  L.A., 
one  could  sense  anxiety  over  some  coming 
"change"  of  liistory.  Rereading  Dana,  I  am  struck 
by  the  obvious.  Dana  saw  California  as  an  extension 
of  Latin  America.  Santa  Barbara,  Monterey, 
San  Francisco — these  were  Mexican  ports  of  call. 
Dana  would  not  be  surprised,  I  think,  to  find 
Los  Angeles  today  a  Third  World  capital  teeming 
with  Aztecs  and  Mayans.  He  would  not  be  surprised 
to  see  that  California  has  become  what  it  already 
was  in  the  1850s.^^ 

Maybe  Dana  would  not  have  been  sur- 
prised, but  many  modern  Californians  were, 
and  they  feared  the  economic  impact  of  newly 
arrived  Mexicans  on  the  job  market,  housing, 
schools,  public  health  services — in  every  conceiv- 
able aspect  of  civic  life.  Many  Californians  fought 


the  immigration.  In  November  1989  a  quasi- 
vigilante  group  calling  itself  Light  Up  the  Border 
began  a  series  of  monthly  demonstrations  at  a 
site  in  San  Diego  County  that  was  well  known  as 
a  porous  entry  zone  for  undocumented  Mexicans 
and  Central  Americans.  The  demonstrators,  con- 
gregating at  dusk  in  their  cars  and  vans,  trained 
their  headlights  along  the  international  bound- 
ary, illuminating  groups  of  Latin  Americans 
waiting  for  dark  to  cross  illegally  into  the  United 
States.  The  loose  coalition  demanded  that  U.S. 
authorities  increase  surveillance  and  control  of 
the  border.  By  the  spring  of  1990  the  monthly 
border  lightings  were  drawing  hundreds  of 
demonstrators. 


i$  Center  opens  in  downtown  Los  flngeles.  Ttie  arena,  built  i 


ttian  two  years,  is  fiome  to  the  Lakers,  the  Clippers,  and  the  Kings.     >    The  Walt  Disney  Concert  Hall  breaks  ground  In  downtown  Los  flngeles. 


STOP  THE  FENCE 


H^E  LA  FRONTEa 
^ENTHEBORDI 

The  campaign  also  swiftly  galvanized 
those  who  repudiated  a  demonstration  that  they 
could  view  only  as  anti-immigration  and  racist. 
Chanting  "jNo  mas  racismo!"  (No  more  racism!), 
the  counterdemonstrators  held  up  mirrors  and 
other  reflective  materials,  turning  the  harsh  glare 
of  the  headlights  back  into  the  eyes  and  hearts  of 
the  campaign  sponsors.  For  one  of  the  monthly 
events,  counterdemonstrators  rented  an  airplane 
trailing  a  banner  that  read,  "One  Thousand 
Points  of  Fear ...  A  New  Berlin  Wall."  This  mes- 
sage was  a  sharply  ironic  reference  to  statements 
by  then-president  George  Bush  that  had  called 
for  "a  kinder,  gentler  America"  symbolized  by 
"a  thousand  points  of  light"  and  "a  new  world 
order"  heralded  by  the  tearing  down  of  the 
Berlin  Wall." 

The  United  States  built  its  own  wall  in 
California  along  the  border  with  Mexico,  and  an 
artistic  response  to  it  was  organized  by  Armando 
Rascon.  Begun  in  1998,  Border  Metamorphosis: 
The  Binational  Mural  Project  is  still  a  work  in 
progress  as  of  this  writing.  In  an  action  that 
recalls  the  appropriation  of  the  Berlin  Wall  by 


countless  artists  who  used  it  to  express  their  refusal 
to  accept  the  moral  legitimacy  of  the  regime  that 
built  it,  Rascon  and  numerous  collaborators  in  the 
United  States  and  Mexico  painted  elaborate 
abstract  murals  with  Olmec-inspired  designs  on 
both  sides  of  a  2.5  mile  stretch  of  metal  wall  sepa- 
rating the  towns  of  Calexico  (in  the  United  States) 
and  Mexicali  (in  Mexico).  It  is  an  attempt  to 
reclaim  and  transcend  the  wall  by  transforming  it 
into  a  work  of  art. 

The  Chicano  art  movement  began  in  the 
1960s  as  an  attempt  by  people  of  Mexican  heritage 
living  in  the  United  States  to  recover  and  reassert 
their  historical  roots  in  a  Mexican  culture  that 
extends  back  to  the  era  before  the  Spanish 
Conquest.  In  the  rethinking  of  identity  issues  dur- 
ing the  1980s  and  1990s,  aspects  of  that  aspiration 
came  to  be  perceived  by  some  as  ironic  and,  in 


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David  Avalos,  Louis  Hock, 
and  Elizabeth  Sisco 

Arte  Reembolso/Art  Rebate, 
1993,  documentation  of 
event 


-Proposition  187  political  Ricardo  Duffy 

)on  by  Lalo  Alcaroz,  1994  The  New  Order, 


Jason  Rhoodes  and 
Jorge  Pardo 

'1  NAFTA  Bench,  1996,  marble, 
plywood,  plastic  buckets  and 
lids,  fabric  pillow,  vinyl- 
covered  cushion,  PVC  plastic 
pipes,  clamps,  and  battery- 
operated  vibrator 


effect,  as  promulgating  a  sort  of  colony  of  cul- 
tural exiles.  Today,  activity  in  the  Chicano  move- 
ment has  become  more  cosmopolitan  and  more 
oriented  toward  a  future  free  of  borders  and 
exiles.  As  cultural  historian  Jose  David  Saldivar 
maintains  in  his  study  of  the  cultural,  political, 
and  social  implications  of  what  he  calls  "border 
matters": 

Cultural  forms  can  no  longer  be  exclusively 
located  within  the  border-patrolled  boundaries  of 
the  nation-state.  Chicano/a  America  therefore 
defines  itself  as  a  central  part  of  an  extended 
frontera.  Its  cultures  are  revitalized  through  a 
"re-Hispanicization"  of  migratory  populations 
from  Mexico  and  Central  America. . .  [The]  cultures 
and  politics,  Central  and  North  American,  of  the 
extended  borderlands  have  become  the  very 
material  for  hybrid  imaginative  processes  that  are 
redefining  what  it  means  to  be  a  Chicano/a  and 
U.S.  Latino/a." 

Historically,  the  assimilation  of  diverse 
newcomers  has  been  the  American  Way,  and 
it  has  led  to  an  accommodation  of  hybridized 
concepts  of  cultural,  ethnic,  and  national 
identity.  Yet  Mexican  nationals — especially 
undocumented  ones — are  patently  and  routinely 
regarded  by  many  U.S.  citizens  as  "alien"  and 
Other.  During  the  mid-1980s  and  well  into  the 
1990s  throughout  California,  private  citizens  and 
coalitions  called  for  an  end  to  the  use  of  public 
funds  to  pay  for  the  essential  services — medical 
care,  welfare,  education — associated  with  absorb- 
ing the  immigration  of  "illegals."  To  dramatize 
the  plight  of  impoverished  immigrants  (and  also 
to  encourage  national  debate  over  the  likewise 
culturally  charged  issue  of  government  support 
for  the  arts),  San  Diego  artists  David  Avalos, 
Louis  Hock,  and  Elizabeth  Sisco  organized  a 
project  in  1993  titled  Arte  Reembolso/Art  Rebate. 
The  artists  converted  a  grant  of  $5,000  received 


from  the  National  Endowment  for  the  Arts  into 
$10  bills,  then  distributed  the  money  to  day 
laborers  and  migrant  workers,  who  were  free  to 
spend  it,  thus  circulating  the  money  back  into 
the  community.  The  artists'  action  was  intended 
to  stir  up  controversy,  and  it  succeeded. 

The  adversarial  climate  continued  to  heat 
up  with  respect  to  border  issues,  culminating 
in  the  passage  of  Proposition  187  in  1994. 
Proposition  187,  which  California  voters  passed 
by  a  59  percent  majority,  forbade  the  use  of  state 
and  local  funds  for  public  social  services  for  ille- 
gal aliens.  The  manner  in  which  the  proposition 
was  drafted  and  put  on  the  ballot  raised  serious 
questions  about  governance  in  California.  Peter 
Schrag,  writing  in  Paradise  Lost:  California's 
Experience,  America's  Future,  persuasively  con- 
tends that  Californians  have  forsaken  the  princi- 
ple of  representative  government,  supplanting 
the  legislative  process  with  sweeping  ballot  initia- 
tives, many  of  which  have  been  put  forth  by 
special  interest  groups."  Schrag  argues  that  the 
effect  is  not  only  the  enactment  of  measures  that 


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may  have  disastrous  side  effects  but  also  the 
diminishment  of — and,  in  the  long  run,  the 
erosion  of  faith  in — democratic  institutions.  In 
California,  he  concludes,  we  behold  the  corrosion 
of  American  democratic  principles;  and,  what  is 
worse,  California's  experience  may  foreshadow 
America's  future. 

A  federal  court  found  most  of  Proposition 
187  unconstitutional  shortly  after  it  was  passed, 
and  a  final  ruling  in  1999  effectively  killed  it. 
The  fact  that  it  had  been  a  voter  initiative  to 
begin  with,  however,  indicates  that  political, 
social,  and  artistic  border  matters,  which  signify 
the  interpenetration  of  cultures  across  impedi- 
ments and  boundaries  of  all  kinds,  thrive  in 
California,  probably  more  than  anywhere  else 
in  the  United  States.  Such  border  matters  also 


agrees  to  a  merger  with  Chicago-based  Tribune  Company,  ending  over  a  century  of  local  ownership  of  the  Los  Rngeles  Times.     >    The  17  4-mi 


Ingeles  Red  Line  subway  system  is  completed  with  the  d[ 


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have  begun  to  define  the  world's  future.  In  an 
age  of  instantaneous  international  communica- 
tion, when  television,  cellular  telephones,  fax 
machines,  and  the  Internet  have  made  possible 
the  global  dissemination  of  information  of  every 
sort  (at  least  to  those  who  have  access  to  such 
means,  which  is  a  considerable  qualifier),  the 
efficacy  of  geographical  borders  and  physical 
boundaries  has  diminished. 

Increasingly,  cultures  may  indeed  be 
defined  less  by  race,  ethnicity,  and  national  bor- 
ders than  by  voluntary  participation  in  a  field 
of  more  or  less  fixed  values  and  experiences. 
California  functions  today  as  a  vast  webwork  of 
discordant  but  relatively  peaceable  diverse  popu- 
lations living  together,  more  or  less,  in  the  same 
indefinable  space,  perpetuating  what  they  wish 
and  adapting  as  they  will.  Almost  every  culture 
and  every  individual  in  California  today  has  been 
imported  from  somewhere  else.  The  civilization 
of  California,  now  and  in  the  future,  is  a  clam- 
orous gathering  of  peoples  in  diaspora. 

For  all  its  problems,  the  chaotic  multi- 
culturality  of  California  stands  against  a  global 
backdrop  that  includes  such  banes  as  a  belliger- 
ent fundamentalism  that  besets  various  religious 
factions  in  the  Middle  East;  xenophobia  and 
nationalism  astir  in  pockets  of  Western  Europe; 
tribal  warfare  that  recurrently  combusts  in  several 
African  nations;  the  malignancy  of  ethnic  cleans- 
ing and  genocide  in  Eastern  Europe;  and  race- 
and  class-based  culture  wars  that  are  never  won 
or  otherwise  resolved  here  in  the  United  States. 
California — especially  the  inchoate  megalopolis 
of  Southern  California,  with  its  ever-mutating 
mosaic  of  territories  and  neighborhoods  and  its 
polyglot  cultural  matrix — may  be,  for  better  or 
for  worse,  a  model  of  the  world  to  come. 

California  remains  one  of  the  most  imag- 
ined places  in  the  American  psyche.  Although 
situated  on  the  western  edge  of  the  national 


map,  California  is  central  to  the  mythology  of 
America.  Its  history  over  the  past  century, 
embodied  in  the  legacy  of  its  arts,  narrates  a  psy- 
chodrama  of  national  dreams  and  nightmares. 
The  Golden  State  is  no  longer  the  epitome  of 
the  regional  and  parochial  fantasy  that  it  once 
seemed.  Earlier  envisioned  as  a  Garden  of  Eden, 
California  has  been  portrayed  more  recently 
in  both  popular  and  critical  forums  as  a  Tower 
of  Babel.  As  life  in  California — increasingly 
presumed  to  mirror  the  nation's  character  and 
to  presage  the  world's  destiny — continues  to 
evolve  in  its  fitful  and  unfathomable  manner,  its 
extraordinary  accommodation  of  all  that  is  new 
and  beyond  traditional  cultures  may  prove  to  be 
its  greatest  strength.  And  the  arts  will  doubtless 
continue  to  offer  keen  insights  into  the 
significance  of  "real"  and  imagined  California. 


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1  Richard  Lacayo,  "Unhealed  Wounds,"  Time, 
April  19, 1993,  28. 

2  Mike  Davis,  Ecology  of  Fear:  Los  Angeles  and 
the  Imagination  of  Disaster  (New  York: 
Metropolitan  Books,  Henry  Holt  and 
Company,  1998),  277. 

3  Ibid. 

4  Ibid. 

5  Ibid.,  281-82. 

6  See  Frances  Anderton,  "Selling  Ethnic  L.A.," 
The  Big  Issue,  no.  5, 1998,  6-8. 

7  Susan  A.  Phillips,  Wallbangin':  Graffiti  and 
Gangs  in  LA.  (Chicago:  University  of 
Chicago  Press,  1999),  15,  74. 

8  Evelyn  Larrubia,  "'Homies'  Toys  Anger 
Anti-Gang  Forces,"  Los  Angeles  Times,  May 
24, 1999,  A-i,  A-19. 

»  Ibid.,  A-19. 

10  As  far  back  as  the  1950s  there  has  been  a 
literary  and  artistic  tradition  of  holding  up 
the  WASP  American  suburb  as  typically 
dysfunctional  and  dystopic.  Novels  such  as 
John  Cheever's  The  Wapshot  Chronicle  (1957), 
plays  such  as  Edward  Albee's  Who's  Afraid  of 
Virginia  Woolf(v)62),  and  films  like  Mike 
Nichols's  The  Graduate  (1967)  all 
satirized  white  middle-class  America  and  its 
values,  stereotypically  defined  in  popular 
culture  by  television  series  like  Ozzie  and 
Harriet  and  The  Dick  Van  Dyke  Show. 

11  Richard  Rodriguez,  "True  West:  Relocating 


the  Horizon  of  the  American  Frontier," 
Harper's,  September  1996,  41. 

12  In  conversation  with  the  author,  May  4, 
1999. 

13  The  Random  House  Unabridged  Dictionary, 
2nd  ed. 

14  Andrea  Liss,  "The  Art  of  James  Luna: 
Postmodernism  with  Pathos,"  in  James  Luna: 
Actions  and  Reactions:  An  Eleven-Year  Survey 
of  Installation/Performance  Work,  1981-1992 
(Santa  Cruz:  Mary  Porter  Sesnon  Art  Gallery, 
University  of  California,  Santa  Cruz,  1992),  9. 

15  Rodriguez,  "True  West,"  43. 

l«  Patrick  McDonnell,  "Counter-Protesters 
Greet  'Light  Up  the  Border'  Group," 
Los  Angeles  Times  (San  Diego  ed.),  April  28, 
1990,  b8. 

17  Jose  David  Saldivar,  Border  Matters: 
Remapping  American  Cultural  Studies 
(Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles:  University  of 
California  Press,  1997),  128-29. 

18  Other  nationally  noted  California  ballot 
initiatives,  in  addition  to  Proposition  187, 
include  Proposition  13  (1978),  which  severely 
limited  property  taxes  that  paid  for  public 
education,  and  Proposition  209  (1996),  which 
outlawed  affirmative  action  programs  in  the 
public  sector.  See  Peter  Schrag,  Paradise  Lost: 
California's  Experience,  America's  Future 
(New  York:  New  Press,  1998). 


WHERE  THE  POPPIES  GROW 


Richard  Rodriguez 


The  world  met  itself  in  California.  Karl  Marx,  that  cast-iron  oracle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
saw  the  California  Gold  Rush  as  an  event  unprecedented  in  history.  In  1849,  Chilean  and  Scot 
and  Chinese  and  Aussie  and  Mexican  and  Yankee— people  of  every  age  and  tongue  and  disused 
occupation— waded  knee-deep  through  the  mud  of  Amador  County. 

All  my  life  I  have  lived  within  the  irony  created  by  the  many  Californians.  Though,  finally,  there 
are  only  two:  I  mean  those  who  came  here  from  elsewhere  and  the  native  born. 

The  first  California  natives,  a  laid-back  tribe,  watched  the  approach,  in  the  distance,  of  Junipero 
Serra — "the  father  of  California" — paternity  thus  stalking  them  with  a  limping  gait.  I  am  so  thoroughly 
Californian  as  to  imagine  the  genesis  cinematically;  the  camera  shuttling  back  and  forth  between  distance 
and  foreground — rather,  between  foreground  and  foreground  (two  cameras,  that's  the  point) — obliterat- 
ing distance,  bisecting  narrative,  eventually  making  one  of  twain. 

My  own  domestic  comedy  reflected  that  first  splice:  My  parents  from  Mexico;  their  children  born 
at  the  destination.  My  Mexican  parents'  ambition  was  California.  Mine  was  to  join  the  greater  world. 

I  didn't  get  far.  I  live  today  in  a  San  Francisco  Victorian  subdivided  by  memory.  Upstairs,  Arizona. 
Across  the  hall,  Tennessee.  Downstairs,  Alabama — the  sweetest  landlord  in  the  world,  Alabama.  My 
neighbors  seem  at  home  in  this  city;  it  is  theirs.  I  am  the  uneasy  tenant,  for  I  was  born  at  St.  Joseph's 
Hospital,  less  than  a  mile  from  where  I  write  these  words.  St.  Joseph's  Hospital  no  longer  exists. 

A  common,  early  theme  of  America  was  the  theme  of  leaving  home;  almost  an  imperative  for 
writers  and  other  misfits.  The  subordinate  theme  was  the  impossibility  of  return — you  can't  go  home 
again.  I  always  read  the  theme  primarily  as  East  Coastal  or  Midwestern;  I  construed  from  it  the  gravity  of 
tall  cities  rather  than  the  constriction  of  towns.  There  is  a  newer  American  refrain,  a  western  refrain: 
What  happens  when  home  leaves  you?  I  hear  it  now  in  places  like  Houston,  where  natives  say  they  rarely 
meet  one  another  because  their  city  has  filled,  so  quickly,  with  people  from  elsewhere.  Or  from 
Coloradans  who  remark  that  everyone  they  know  seems  to  have  arrived  last  year  from  California. 

California's  nativist  chagrin  is  older  and  louder  because  California  has,  for  so  long,  played 
America's  America.  The  end  of  the  road.  Or  a  second  shot  at  the  future.  California  has  served  also  as 
Asia's  principal  port  of  entry.  Now,  too,  the  busiest  border  crossing  from  Latin  America. 

California's  native-born  children — whatever  our  color  or  tongue — realize  very  early  that 
California  takes  every  impression.  Our  parents,  on  the  other  hand,  are  often  surprised  by  how  many 
Californias  they  find  when  they  get  here.  Nothing  at  all  like  they  expected.  Nothing  like  the  movie. 

My  early  intuition  as  a  native  son  was  that  California  was  dreamed  into  being  elsewhere.  I  noticed 
that  paradigmatic  Californians  weren't  so  by  birth.  Richard  Diebenkorn  came  from  Oregon.  Cesar 
Chavez  was  born  in  Yuma.  Willie  Mays,  Louis  B.  Mayer,  Jack  Kerouac,  Richard  Neutra,  Lucy  and  Desi, 
Edward  Teller — all  of  them  from  far  away.  All  of  them  living  forever  in  California  on  the  same  street. 


Richard  Rodriguez      WHERE   the   poppies 


Mickey  Mouse  was  conceived  aboard  the  Santa  Fe,  westward  bound.  Minnie  was  drawn  from  his 
rib,  born  here.  As  was  John  Steinbeck,  born  in  SaHnas;  his  house  still  stands.  Steinbeck's  generosity  was  to 
invent  the  Joad  family's  first  view  of  orange  groves,  to  believe  that  Oklahoma  Joads  were  more  important 
to  the  myth  of  California  than  their  native-born  grandchildren  who  live  in  suburban  Bakersfield  and 
complain  about  "the  changes." 

When  I  was  a  kid,  the  nationally  advertised  version  of  California  was  the  GI  version.  Early  in  the 
forties,  thousands  of  young  men  had  seen  California  light  from  train  windows — light  receding  as  they 
shipped  out  toward  tragedy.  And  in  the  midst  of  tragedy,  they  remembered,  perhaps,  some  bong  in  the 
air  that  promised  to  redeem  them. 

After  the  war,  the  survivors  returned  with  narrowed  eyes,  with  the  GI  Bill,  with  fha  loans,  to 
build  a  pacific  ever-after.  They  buried  the  shudder  of  death  beneath  hard  sentimental  weight;  beneath 
lawns,  green  lawns,  all-electric  kitchens,  three  bedrooms,  two  kids,  a  boy  and  a  girl,  and  an  orderly 
succession  of  Christmas  lights,  tacked  up  with  much  goddammit. 

Many  of  these  veterans  were  middle-aged  by  the  time  I  was  their  newspaper  boy.  Many  had  jobs 
in  the  defense  industry,  because  they  would  forbid  tragedy.  Each  afternoon,  I  folded  and  lobbed  the 
world  onto  their  porches.  But  I  was  otherwise  complicitous  in  their  cover-up.  I  willingly  played  the  inno- 
cent— the  native — as  did  their  two  towheaded  children,  a  boy  and  a  girl,  whooping  through  the  bushes 
with  pheasant  feathers  tied  onto  our  heads. 

I  played  another  role.  I  played  the  son  of  the  Old  Country,  the  tragedian.  For  I  lived  in  "el  norte," 
a  memory  of  dread,  which  I  took  from  my  parents'  eyes.  I  also  put  on  Bombay  eyes — my  uncle  came 
from  India.  My  Mexican  parents  and  my  Indian  uncle  saw  California  as  a  refuge  from  chaos,  but  they 
understood  that  tragedy  was  preeminently  natural. 

My  California  was  also  imagined  in  the  Azores,  the  wraith  of  some  Atlantic  storm.  I  grew  up 
among  Portuguese,  Irish.  My  Catholic  nuns  came  from  Ireland  and  brought  with  them — as  if  it  were 
ground  into  the  glass  of  the  spectacles  they  wore — a  tragic  vision.  This  despite  the  luxurious  light  of 
California  opening  over  all.  Can  it  have  been  a  coincidence  that  my  first  allegiance  to  a  writer  was  to 
William  Saroyan,  who  had  grown  up  in  Fresno,  under  a  cloudless  sky,  listening  to  Armenian  grand- 
mothers' tales  of  genocide? 

Eureka!  (I  have  found  it.)  California's  official  motto  should  be  mistranslated:  /  have  brought  it. 
I  folded  California  into  my  portmanteau  and  carried  it  over  the  sea,  then  across  the  Sierra.  Or  I  invented 
California  in  my  Kwangtung  village,  from  the  gaunt  letters  Fiong-on  Sam  sent  his  long-dead  wife. 
I  sketched  California  on  the  steps  of  my  parents'  brownstone  in  Brooklyn,  listening  to  my  grandfather's 
stories  of  castles  in  Poland.  What  did  he  know  from  castles?  We  were  peasants.  Very  few  people  do  know 
castles.  I'll  prove  it.  What  did  I  do  when  I  got  to  Hollywood?  I  put  his  damn  palaces  into  my  movies 
and  now  the  whole  world  takes  my  grandfather's  version  of  how  Greta  Garbo  should  behave  in  a  palace. 
All  a  barnyard  dream. 

I  grew  up  in  Sacramento,  in  a  Prairie  house  decorated  with  Mexican  statues  with  imprecisely 
painted  sclera  and  stigmata.  Outside  my  window  were  camellias,  every  winter,  red  and  white  globes. 

Any  sense  I  have  of  California  is  beholden  to  the  importations  of  Iowa  and  Spain  and  New 
England  and  Oklahoma  and  the  Philippines.  Without  the  prompting  of  Midwestern  artisans,  I  would 
never  have  noticed  the  austerity,  the  utility,  the  beauty  of  California  Indian  baskets.  Without  the  cues  of 


newcomers,  I  would  not  have  noticed  the  austerity,  the  beauty  of  Cahfornia:  Nancy,  describing  in  letters 
from  Ohio — this  was  years  after  she  had  left  Stanford — her  yearning  for  the  scent  of  eucalyptus  and  the 
smell  of  salt;  her  longing  for  brown  hills  and  the  chemical  distance  of  the  Santa  Clara  Valley,  an  ostensi- 
ble autumn  haze — L'Amertume  (a  poem  she  wrote,  she  admitted,  having  just  learned  the  word). 

My  own  naive  first  impression  of  Stanford  was  to  wonder  why  no  one  watered  it.  Old  brown  hills. 
For  my  sense  of  pre-California,  as  of  pre-Californians,  was  one  of  parchment,  of  absence — nakedness, 
leisure,  freedom,  pacificism. 

Gertrude  Stein's  famous  skepticism  concerning  Oakland  sounds  native  to  me,  though  she  wasn't. 
No  "there"  there.  Why  not  extend  that  koan  to  the  entire  state?  If  you  list  California's  famous  exports 
to  the  world,  you  come  up  with  a  volley  of  blanks.  I  mean  spiceless  tacos,  accentless  newscasters,  birth 
control  pills,  strip  malls,  tract  homes,  hula  hoops,  cyberspace,  Marilyn  Monroe. 

And  yet,  as  a  Californian,  having  taken  so  many  impressions,  I  feel  at  home  any  place  in  the  world. 

And  yet,  California  has  invented  so  much  of  the  postmodern  world  that  most  places  in  the 
world  are  packing  away  their  idiosyncrasies  in  order  to  more  closely  resemble  California. 

Louis  Kahn,  the  Philadelphia  architect,  gave  California  one  of  our  best  modernist  buildings,  the 
Salk  Institute  (named  for  Jonas  Salk,  a  native  New  Yorker).  Kahn's  method,  before  starting  any  construc- 
tion, was  to  brood  over  the  landscape  in  several  lights,  several  weathers.  What  does  this  space  want  to 
become?  One  imagines  the  soil  of  Bangladesh  or  Fort  Worth  responding  more  forthrightly  to  Kahn's 
question  than  the  cloudless  idiot,  California. 

California  is  never  more  recognizable  than  when  it  supports  a  completely  incongruous  construc- 
tion. A  giant  orange  or  a  giant  donut  or  a  statue  of  John  Wayne.  The  landscape  otherwise  seems  without 
an  idea  of  itself. 

I  went  to  a  party  in  a  house  by  the  sea.  The  house,  a  famous  California  house,  was  imagined  into  being 
by  Midwesterners.  The  principal  architect,  Charles  Greene  (of  the  brothers  Greene  and  Greene,  Ohio- 
born),  had  been  commissioned  by  a  client  from  Kansas  City.  The  house  successfully  reconciles  England 
with  Spain,  Protestantism  with  Catholicism,  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  with  Alfred  Hitchcock,  the  nine- 
teenth with  the  twentieth  century,  and,  what's  more,  Northern  with  Southern  California.  The  front  yard 
is  the  Pacific  Ocean — sometimes  undulant,  the  color  of  antifreeze;  sometimes  monotonous,  gray. 

The  house  was  left  to  the  son  after  his  parents  died.  But  then  (decades  later;  a  decade  ago)  the 
son  died;  the  house  passed  to  the  son's  children.  (Here  the  plot  shifts  from  Midwestern  immigrant  to 
California  native.)  Such  a  burden  the  house  had  become  in  recent  years — too  big  and  too  drafty,  too 
leaky,  too  weathered,  too  expensive  to  maintain.  (The  daughters  knew  what  very  few  know:  life  in  a  cas- 
tle.) The  daughters  decided  to  sell.  They  located  a  buyer  besotted  by  California,  a  Chicago  businessman. 
The  new  owner  has  restored  the  house  to  its  pristine  austerity. 

So  there  we  were  on  a  colorless  Saturday,  summer  fog  gathering  as  we  gathered  about  a  wood- 
burning  brazier  in  the  courtyard.  On  trestle  tables  were  the  latest- fangled  California  salads.  The  correct 
Cabernets.  With  the  other  guests,  I  wandered  through  rooms  that  had  already  passed  into  someone  else's 
privacy.  I  noticed  the  swift  and  silent  appraisals  of  the  new  owner's  paintings  and  books,  some  still 
bearing  the  auction-house  tags. 


Richard  Rodriguez     where   the   poppies   grou 


All  afternoon,  I  had  the  sense  of  the  two  Californias.  On  the  one  hand,  glamorous  Midwestern 
California.  (Upon  the  mantels  and  atop  the  piano,  the  founding  family's  photographs  and  mementos  had 
been  returned  for  the  occasion.  We  saw  the  parents'  lives — they  were  theatricals — the  beauty  of  their 
youths,  their  famous  friendships;  the  books  they  had  written,  including  the  book  for  a  Broadway  musical 
about  the  Midwest.)  On  the  other,  the  leisured  puritanism  of  the  native  Californians.  leans  and  faded 
shirts,  no  makeup,  sun-bleached  hair,  sensible  hors  d'oeuvres. 

There  was  something  British  about  the  afternoon — not  American  and  certainly  not  Kansan. 
The  native  daughters  were  consigned  by  history  the  role  of  docents  within  their  grandparents'  house. 

I  am  thinking  now  of  those  women,  the  first  American  generation  of  native-born  Californians, 
born  in  the  gold  country.  They  came  of  age  in  the  i86os,  naming  themselves  "Native  Daughters  of  the 
Golden  West" — California's  first  historical  society.  They  organized  their  "parlor"  in  a  foothill  town  and 
recruited  others  like  themselves  to  the  observances  of  memory.  The  sole  requirement  for  membership  in 
the  Native  Daughters  was  California  nativity.  The  pioneers  the  sorority  honored,  however,  were  people 
who  were  born  elsewhere. 

What  the  Daughters  knew,  a  generation  after  their  parents'  ambition  had  spent  itself  in  the  gold 
fields,  was  that  the  audacity  of  their  parents  would  be  forgotten  as  soon  as  the  cabins  and  schools  and 
churches  they  built  fell  to  ruin.  The  Daughters  preserved  things  in  order  to  remember  lives.  But  the  task 
of  preserving  the  past  is  a  thankless  one,  even  comic,  in  a  state  given  to  futurism — like  trying  to  preserve 
a  fifties  moderne  bowling  alley.  The  heedless  vulgarity  of  the  bowling  alley  is  distorted  the  moment  it 
becomes  (from  our  postmodern  vantage  point)  worthy  of  preservation. 

loan  Didion  discloses  in  her  1965  essay  "Notes  from  a  Native  Daughter"  that  she  comes  "from  a 
family,  or  a  congeries  of  families,  that  has  always  been  in  the  Sacramento  Valley."  Californians  immedi- 
ately note  the  ironic  weight  of  "always"  in  her  native  syntax.  Though  some  families  may  still  have 
Spanish  land  grants  tucked  away  (one  notices  occasionally  in  obituaries),  one  need  not  live  very  long  in 
California  to  qualify  as  "old  family."  Didion  describes  Sacramento  in  the  late  fifties  (the  Valley  town 
becoming  the  city  I  came  to  know)  as  "a  place  in  which  a  boom  mentality  and  a  sense  of  Chekhovian 
loss  meet  in  uneasy  suspension." 

As  I  recall,  my  own  Russian  summer  ended  each  year  with  a  blast  of  heat,  the  threat  of  school, 
the  smell  of  unbroken  denim.  Summer's  last  stand  was  the  California  State  Fair  on  Stockton  Boulevard. 
I  loved  especially  the  domed  Victorian-style  pavilion,  with  booths  of  arranged  fruits  and  vegetables  from 
every  county  and  climate.  Inevitably,  my  Victorian  fair  was  replaced  by  something  ugly  and  new  across 
town.  "Cal  Expo"  was  built  on  an  amusement-park  model  and  boasted  third-rate  lounge  acts  and 
destruction  derbies.  This  was  the  first  time  I  remember  having  to  come  to  terms  with  my  meaning  in 
California. 

I  decided  it  was  OK  for  them,  but  I  didn't  go.  I  was  an  old-timer  at  the  age  of  twelve. 

One  needle-sharp  morning  in  1968,  I  was  walking  up  Madison  Avenue,  where  I  happened  upon  the 
funeral  of  lohn  Steinbeck.  I  paused  at  the  edge  of  the  crowd  of  celebrities.  I  saw  Steinbeck's  casket — 
an  expensive  affair  covered  with  boughs  of  evergreen — carried  down  the  steps  of  St.  James  Episcopal. 
This  I  approved — approved  the  approbation  of  the  East  Coast — as  a  native  Californian  would. 


Hard  for  anyone  not  born  at  the  destination  to  understand  my  preoccupation  with  originals, 
with  provenance.  I  grew  up  in  Cahfornia  dreaming  of  elsewhere — as  did  Saroyan,  as  did  Didion,  as  did 
Steinbeck.  I  wondered  about  those  places  of  which  California  had  always  seemed  the  mirage.  Jalisco. 
Minnesota.  Bombay.  And  New  York,  especially  New  York — which  had  concocted  ideas  of  "the  Coast"  as 
its  Hegelian  opposite. 

At  my  present  age,  I  have  forsaken  the  study  of  contributing  strains,  original  forms,  for  a  pleasure 
in  the  hybrid  itself.  Indeed,  I  impatiently  listen  when  native  Californians,  far  afield,  tell  me  they  have 
abandoned  the  crowds  and  cost  of  California  for  a  simpler  grid.  The  native  daughter,  for  example,  (still 
restless,  I  notice)  sits  beside  a  pool  in  Phoenix  and  deplores  the  traffic  in  Los  Angeles.  Having  departed 
California,  where  she  was  forever  bemoaning  the  loss  of  the  department  stores  of  her  youth,  she  becomes 
a  tiresome  seer  in  Arizona.  Nothing  does  she  see  more  clearly  than  the  coming  of  California.  California 
coming  to  Austin  and  Portland.  In  Boulder,  she  is  dismayed  by  tract  houses  along  the  front  range  that 
remind  her  of  Anaheim  a  generation  ago.  She  can't  wait  to  say,  "I  told  you  so." 

In  our  parents'  generation,  too,  there  had  been  talk  of  divorce — a  legal  separation  of  North  from 
South.  All  to  do  with  water  rights  and  political  incompatibilities.  The  North  represented  agriculture, 
abstemiousness;  a  liberal  coast.  The  South  was  heedless,  sprawling,  splashy,  wasteful;  a  conservative  coast. 
In  the  fifties,  I  remember,  too,  an  ethical  resentment.  The  Central  Valley  resented  the  playful  urbanity  of 
the  coast. 

The  boldness  of  the  fifties,  however,  was  that  Californians  came  up  with  ideas  of  the  state  larger 
than  their  differences.  By  mid-century,  when  California  became  the  most  populous  state  in  the  union, 
our  parents  felt  themselves  resistant  enough  to  tragedy  to  celebrate.  California  constructed  eight-lane 
freeways  to  join  city  and  country;  built  a  sub-urban  architecture  with  two-car  garages  and  sliding  glass 
walls  to  allow  each  Californian  simultaneity — inside  and  outside  at  once. 

California's  most  flamboyant  reconciliation  was  the  horizontal  city,  in  distinction  to  the  verticality 
of  the  East  Coast.  Separate  freeway  exits,  even  separate  climates,  distinct  neighborhoods,  faiths,  lan- 
guages— all  were  annexed  to  one  another,  stood  united  beneath  a  catholic  abstraction  called  "San  Jose"  or 
"Sacramento"  or — the  greatest  horizontal  abstraction  in  the  world — "L.A."  The  horizontal  city  not  only 
tolerated  incoherence  and  disharmony,  it  found  its  meaning  in  the  juxtaposition  of  a  chic  restaurant,  a 
Jesus  Saves  storefront,  a  taco  stand.  The  horizontal  city  was  crisscrossed  by  freeways  that  promised  escape 
from  complicity  while  also  forcing  complexity.  The  surfer,  who  grew  up  on  the  premises  in  loco  parentis, 
grew  up  knowing  (without  having  to  learn  exactly)  nakedness,  leisure,  ft-eedom,  pacificism,  also  chop- 
sticks and  Spanish. 

Didn't  Walt  Disney  tantalize  California  with  the  idea  of  floating  over  street-level  congestion  on  a 
monorail?  In  the  fifties,  Disney  purchased  some  flower  farms  from  Japanese  families  in  Orange  County 
and  plowed  them  under.  Then  he  plowed  under  someone  else's  citrus  grove.  Walt  Disney's  new  crop 
was  to  be  innocence.  Disney  had  come  from  Chicago,  so  immediately  he  got  the  point  of  California.  He 
constructed  very  different  magic  kingdoms,  side  by  side.  In  that  first  summer  after  Disneyland  opened, 
I  happily  made  my  way  through  the  chambers  of  Walt  Disney's  rather  interesting  imagination. 

Only  in  one  respect  did  Disney  seem  at  odds  with  his  adopted  state.  Prudishly,  he  insisted  upon 
a  discretion  among  the  several  kingdoms  analogous  to  the  nonpermeable  black  lines  that  surround  car- 
toon characters.  Main  Street  must  never  betray  a  knowledge  of  Tomorrowland.  Costumed  employees 


Richard  Rodriguez     WHERE 


were  required  to  travel  through  underground  tunnels,  before  and  after  their  shifts,  thus  maintaining 
strict  narrative  borders,  thus  precluding  surrealism.  Cinderella  vs'ill  never  meet  Davy  Crockett  in  the 
Magic  Kingdom. 

Whereas  within  the  horizontal  city,  California's  children  grew  up  accustomed  to  disjunction.  In 
the  light  of  day,  and  at  street  level,  all  over  California,  Fantasyland  is  right  next  door  to  Frontierland.  And 
the  adolescents  of  alternate  fantasies  began  to  blend  and  marry  one  another.  Which  is  why  California  is 
famous  today  for  the  tofu  burrito  and  the  highest  rate  of  miscegenation  in  the  mainland  U.S. 

Disneyland  was  so  httle  rooted  in  California,  it  flourished  here.  Disneyland  was  so  little  rooted  in 
California  that  the  Disney  corporation  could  pack  it  up  and  ship  it  entire  to  Florida  and  Tokyo  and 
France,  where  it  flourished  as  emblematic  of  California. 

A  few  years  ago,  I  spent  o  day  with  a  friend  who  worked  in  the  art  department  of  the  Warner  Brothers 
studio  in  Burbank.  My  perception  of  Warner  Brothers  had  always  been  of  a  purveyor  of  secular  cartoons, 
as  opposed  to  the  Disney  insistence  upon  a  spiritual  dimension  to  their  product.  Disney  cartoons  were 
not  funny.  Warner  Brothers  cartoons  were  not  charming.  The  Warner  Brothers  lot  was  clearly  an  indus- 
trial park.  We  toured  the  studio  in  a  golf  cart.  There  was  no  discretion  between  miracles  at  Warner 
Brothers — between  Batman's  Gotham  and  the  parting  of  the  Red  Sea.  We  had  lunch  at  the  commissary. 

In  late  afternoon,  my  friend  left  me  for  a  time,  and  I  wandered  alone  through  a  wooden  ware- 
house— the  costume  department — a  temporary  structure  surviving  from  the  forties.  One  side  of  the 
building  was  open  to  the  spring  air.  A  door,  like  the  sliding  door  of  a  freight  car,  had  been  rolled  aside. 
There  was  no  one  about. 

I  began  to  smell  what  I  can  only  describe  as  California.  I  remember  the  moment  most  clearly  as 
a  scent — of  optimism,  or  perhaps  its  residue — not  some  quail-colored,  reedy  smell  of  country  but  the 
smell  of  my  family's  kitchen,  now  long  gone:  An  overheated  electrical  cord,  scorched  fabric,  steam,  starch, 
a  spring  day.  The  joined  smells  of  imagination  and  making  do;  smells  of  dream  and  industry.  Here  was 
room  after  room  of  costumes  and  all  the  appliances  of  fantasy — scepters,  masks,  tiaras,  gloves,  window 
dressings  from  stricken  sets.  Yards  and  yards  of  every  imaginable  silk  and  tartan  and  shape  and  period- 
dance.  So  many  dreams,  folded  into  boxes  or  hanging  in  rows;  a  confusion  of  narratives  unaccountably 
readied  for  a  return  to  the  potent  light  of  day.  This  gladdened  me. 

Out  of  sorts.  I  should  think  you  would  be,  too,  if  you  had  been  sweating  blood  on  the  Santa  Monica 
Freeway  for  an  hour — even  though  she  waited  till  well  after  the  rush,  it  took  that  long.  Let  them  honk! 
Go  on.  Go  on.  Over  an  hour  from  Santa  Monica  and  she  found  the  lots  filled.  What?  This  lot  is  full, 
ma'am.  You  have  to  go  around  that  way.  That  way.  What?  And  so  on. 

And  now  the  museum  is  crowded  with  schoolchildren — rolling  thunder,  static  electricity,  indeci- 
pherable bird  calls — her  hearing  aid  takes  its  adjectives  from  vast  storm-laden  canvases  surrounding  her 
in  the  atrium.  She  decides  to  do  the  exhibition  in  reverse — "flee  the  children's  hour."  Work  back  to  the 
beginning  in  peace  and  quiet.  And  see  without  precedent,  as  if  such  a  thing  were  possible. 

But  in  no  gallery  is  she  free  of  racket,  the  crude  translations  of  the  serpentlike  coil  in  her  ear, 
which  is  the  knowledge  that  she  is  getting  too  old  for  this.  This  being  everything.  The  supermarket.  The 
drugstore.  What?  Christmas.  An  atrium  full  of  schoolchildren. 


She  is  not  one  of  those  old  women  who  is  afraid  of  children.  She  had  been  a  grammar-school 
teacher  before  the  war,  and  just  after.  She  cannot  imagine  being  afraid  of  a  child.  She  reads  in  the  paper 
of  fearful  teachers  and  she  cannot  imagine  it.  The  business  of  the  child  is  to  push  at  the  perimeters.  The 
business  of  the  teacher  is  to  push  back.  Her  own  grandchildren  don't  interest  her  very  much,  in  truth. 
They  don't  push  at  all.  Since  they  turned  fourteen,  they  know  everything  there  is  to  know.  They  smile, 
and  school's  fine,  thank  you,  and  may  I  be  excused  as  soon  as  possible?  There,  there,  mother.  Well,  they're 
so  jaded.  They  don't  take  delight  in  anything.  Nothing  is  wonderful  to  them,  is  it?  Except  loud.  They 
seem  to  like  loud. 

She  deposits  her  gloves  in  her  purse.  Fishes  for  her  glasses  case.  What  would  she  tell  them,  the 
children  in  the  atrium,  about  California?  About  anything?  Don't  get  old  in  the  first  place,  gmzzzz,  sneers 
the  hearing  aid.  Oh,  do  shut  up!  She  fiddles  with  the  little  wheel  behind  her  ear,  turns  it  the  wrong  way 
till  it  shrieks  with  pain.  She  reverses  the  wheel,  shhhhhh. 

Imported  to  California,  in  the  second  place,  she  silently  corrects  the  banner  over  the  exit  sign: 
MADE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  She  is  reminded  of  how  many  versions  of  California .. . 

You  will  notice,  boys  and  girls,  how  many  artists  in  this  exhibit  came  from  elsewhere.. . 

A  lucky  place.  They  were  lucky  to  live  here.  Felt  themselves  lucky.  She  had  known  one  or  two 
of  these  painters,  before  the  war.  He  was  a  bit  of  an  old  goat,  as  she  recalls.  But  that's  just  it,  she  can't 
recall.  The  half-life  of  emotions!  The  impression  more  lasting  than  the  incident;  color  more  lasting  than 
fugitive  form. 

You  should  memorize  the  things  that  please  you;  then  when  you  re  old  and  sitting  by  yourself,  you  II 
have  something .. . 

Silently  instructing  the  children,  as  if  they  were  her  boys  and  girls  of  yore,  even  though  she  had 
left  the  children  behind  in  the  first  room,  left  all  consideration  of  children  behind  in  a  life  she  couldn't 
completely  recollect.  But  were  they  lucky  to  live  here?  She  didn't  know  anymore. 

Her  own  parents  from  Wisconsin:  Her  father  a  gentle  architect  of  bungalows.  Of  the  hundreds 
of  bungalows  her  father  built — well,  she  doesn't  know;  they  were  all  over  the  place — but  of  the  ones  in 
Santa  Monica  only  seven  remain,  mainly  in  the  blocks  off  Montana.  They  weren't  brilliant  houses,  no. 
They  were  meant  to  be  comfortable  and  solid,  to  withstand  the  wear  and  tear  of  ordinary  lives.  Solid 
floors.  Solid  cupboards.  Knock-knock.  Good  plumbing.  Good  light.  The  light  was  the  thing.  Good 
porches,  rooms  of  good  size,  and  good  light. 

The  light  remains.  You  have  to  go  away  to  see  it  again.  Then  come  back,  and  there  it  is.  Different 
from  anyplace  else.  California  light. 

She  raised  her  own  three  children — she  tried  to  raise  her  children  with  a  sense  of  place  and  his- 
tory. All  have  moved  away;  seem  to  feel  nothing  for  California.  Well,  maybe  they  do.  They  wanted  the 
paintings.  {Knock-knock.)  But  they  always  expect  her  to  visit  them.  Boston.  Phoenix.  Denver.  Whereas  she 
was  always  haunted  by  the  California  that  had  been  bequeathed  to  her . . .  Now  why  is  it,  she  irritably 
addresses  the  hearing  aid,  why  is  it  someone  is  always  stacking  cartons  in  my  left  ear?  Knock-knock,  says 
the  hearing  aid.  What?  Oh,  very  well,  who's  there?  It's  your  own  footsteps,  stupid  old  woman.  She  looks 
down.  Takes  a  step.  So  it  is — it's  this  parquet. 

After  the  children  went  away  to  school,  she  had  formed  many  a  committee  in  Santa  Monica.  To 
save  things.  But  not  for  the  sake  of  her  children,  as  she  would  once  have  said.  Or  for  any  children.  Just 


for  the  sake  of  the  things  themselves.  Like  a  scholar's  lonely  knowledge.  Intrinsic  value.  A  few  old  places 
out  on  the  pier.  Houses  in  Venice.  An  old  hotel  on  Ocean  Avenue.  "Madame  Full  Charge,"  Jack  used  to 
call  her.  "Scourge  of  City  Hall."  Well,  and  they  did  groan  when  they  saw  me  coming  with  my  straw  basket 
full  of  mimeographs. 

She  is  becalmed  now  by  a  roomful  of  pastoral  paintings  from  the  twenties.  Her  hearing  aid, 
dozing  off,  broadcasts  only  a  neutral  plane  of  sound,  like  the  air  in  jet  cabins. 

/  know  which  one  I  should  buy.. . 

She  is  inevitably  reminded  of  her  mother's  voice  whenever  she  enters  a  gallery.  Her  mother  was 
"artistic,"  a  sobriquet  ready  at  hand  for  a  woman  who  kept  a  kiln  in  her  back  shed;  a  leitmotif,  no 
more — as  others  in  her  mother's  circle  might  be  "musical"  or  "well  read"  or  "devout  Catholics"  or  "sharp 
as  tacks."  Native  sarcasm  waited  to  harvest  any  ambition  that  grew  higher  than  a  hollyhock.  But  Mother 
was  a  painter,  truly,  quite  a  good  painter.  Mother's  "masterpiece,"  as  the  family  always  referred  to  the 
oil  above  the  mantel  (in  that  same  vein  of  California  sarcasm) — Capitola,  1911 — would  not  suffer  in 
comparison  with  this  one.  She  puts  on  her  glasses  to  read  the  legend;  removes  them  to  regard  Prussian 
blue  and  blue  violet,  zinc . . . 

Her  reverie  is  interrupted  by  a  clap  of  thunder,  several  claps,  then  a  deluge — the  arrival  of  the 
schoolchildren  at  the  1920s.  Look  at  them  all!  Those  tennis  shoes.  Like  puppies  not  yet  grown  into  their 
feet.  Lately  California  had  become  such  a  mystery  to  her.  Everything  starting  to  melt.  To  slide.  To  quicken 
and  to  rust.  What  is  the  point?  Boys  and  girls,  indeed!  Look  at  them,  only  interested  in  that  earphone 
tour  thing. 

Click.  Click. 

Still,  the  faces  interest  her;  those  boys  over  there  with  their  pants  falling  down  interest  her. 
Black  parents,  obviously.  But  something  else,  too.  Mexican,  I  suppose.  How  do  they  keep  their  pants  on? 
A  question  for  her  grandchildren. 

Then,  beyond  the  nervous  boys,  she  notices  the  girl  in  a  pale  green  dress.  Not  much  of  a  dress, 
but  it  is  properly  ironed.  Vietnamese?  Homely,  solitary — as  she  was,  too,  at  that  age.  Probably  bright,  and 
their  parents  make  them  work.  There  is  a  serenity  about  the  child  for  which  the  hearing  aid  can  gather 
no  simile.  The  girl's  lips  part  slightly.  Then  the  girl  moves  one  hand  to  shade  her  eyes,  as  if  she  is  search- 
ing the  distance  of  the  landscape  before  her.  Good  girl.  Good  girl.  She  has  clearly  entered  the  landscape. 
And  welcome:  Granville  Redmond,  California  Poppy  Field,  c.  1926. 

The  girl's  classmates  have  tumbled  off  together,  clicking  their  gizmos,  rubber  soles  screeching  like 
violins  into  the  next  gallery. 

The  girl  stays. 

Granville  Redmond.  The  Vietnamese  teenager.  The  Native  Daughter  of  the  Golden  West.  Each  is 
united  to  the  others  in  thinking  he  sees  the  same  thing. 

A  field  of  flowers,  a  painting  of  a  field  of  flowers,  a  Vietnamese  girl  considering  a  painting  of  a 
field  of  flowers. 

California,  c.  2000. 


CHECKLIST  OF  THE  EXHIBITION 


The  checklist  is  complete  as  of  luly  31,  2000. 

Entries  are  listed  alphabetically  by  artist. 
Multiple  works  under  one  artist  are 
chronological. 

Dates  of  individual  works  within  a  series 
are  given  when  they  differ  from  the 
series  date.  Undated  series  are  ongoing 
in  most  cases. 

Life  dates  are  furnished  whenever  available. 

Height  precedes  width.  Depth,  when 
given,  follows  height  and  width. 

Abbreviations: 
cb:  center  back 
d:  diameter 
h:  height 
l:  length 


Kim  Abeles 

United  States,  b.  1952 

Forty  Days  and  Forty  Nights  of  Smog,  1991 
Particulate  matter  (smog)  on  Plexiglas,  auto 
mufflers,  detritus,  chiffon,  and  wood 
30  X  38  X  56  in.  (76.2  X  96.5  X  142.2  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Jerome  Ackerman 

United  States,  b.  1920 

Bowl  with  Black  and  White  Matte  Glazes; 
Covered  Jar  with  Black  and  White  Matte  Glazes; 
Fruit  Bowl  with  Black  Matte  Glaze;  Tall  Bottle 
with  Blue  and  Black  Glazes;  Tall  Vase  with 
White  Matte  Glaze;  Wine  Decanter  and  Four 
Cups  with  White  Matte  Glaze,  1953-60 
Stoneware,  glazed 

h:  2%  in.  (6  cm),  d:  6'/2  in.  (16.5  cm);  h:  7%  in. 
(20  cm),  d:  4y8  in.  (11.8  cm);  4%  x  i4'/4  in. 
(12.1  X  36.2  cm);  h:  14%  in.  (37.5  cm),  d:  zV^  in. 
(7  cm);  h:  i4-y4  in.  (37.5  cm),  d:  1V4  in.  (7  cm); 
h:  16  in.  (40.6  cm),  d:  1V2  in.  (6.4  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 
p.  162 

Orange  and  Ochre  Wall  Sconce,  1956 
Porcelain  enamel  on  steel 
4  X  14%  X  6  in.  (10.2  X  37.5  X  15.2  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Ansel  Adams 

United  States,  1902-1984 

Monolith,  the  Face  of  Half  Dome,  Yosemite 

National  Park,  1927,  printed  1980 

Gelatin-silver  print 

19V4  X  14%  in.  (48.9  X  36.8  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  the  artist  in  memory 

of  Robin  Cranston 

p.  129 

Mt.  Williamson,  the  Sierra  Nevada,  from 

Manzanar,  California,  1944,  printed  1978 

Gelatin-silver  print 

15 '/2  X  18%  in.  (39.4  X  47.6  cm) 

Anne  and  Arnold  Porath 

p.  156 

Half  Dome  and  Moon,  Yosemite  Valley, 

California,  c.  1950 

Gelatin-silver  print 

211/2  X  30  in.  {54.6  X  76.2  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  in  memory  of  Helen  Green  Cross 

P-i/i 

Yosemite  Valley,  from  Inspiration  Point, 
Yosemite  National  Park,  1969 
Photo-offset  print  on  metal  container 
h:  7  in.  (17.8  cm);  d:  6'/4  in.  (15.9  cm) 
Courtesy  George  Eastman  Hou.se 
p.  196 


Clinton  Adams 

United  States,  b.  1918 

Barrington  Street,  1951 
Egg  tempera  on  paper 
13V2  X  20  in.  (34.3  X  50.8  cm) 
Mel  and  Sharlene  Leventhal 
P-157 

Harry  Adams 

United  States,  1918-1988 

Funeral  of  Ronald  Stokes,  29,  Secretary  of 

Mosque  #27,  Los  Angeles,  May  s,  1962, 1962 

Gelatin-silver  print 

11x14  in.  (27.9x35.6  cm) 

Center  for  Photojournalism  and  Visual  History, 

California  State  University,  Northridge 

p.  220 

Allan  Adier 

United  States,  b.  1916 

Flatware  Place  Setting  for  Six,  "Roundend,"  1944 
Sterling  silver 
Varied  dimensions 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Centerpiece  with  Firepots,  c.  1950 
Sterling  silver  and  glass 
h:  6  in.  (15.2  cm);  d:  24  in.  (61  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Amy  AdIer 

United  States,  b.  1966 

Ace,  1997 

Silver  dye-bleach  (cibachrome)  print 
50  X  34  in.  (127  x  86.4  cm) 
Collection  of  Barry  Sloane 

Gilbert  Adrian 

United  States,  1903-1959 

Costume  for  Greta  Garbo,  created  for 

"Inspiration,"  mgm,  1930 

Silk  crepe,  paste  stones,  and  rhinestones 

CB  (with  train):  75 '/2  in.  (191.8  cm);  Sleeve  l: 

20  in.  (50.8  cm) 

Museum  Collection,  The  Fashion  Institute  of 

Design  &  Merchandising,  from  the  Department 

of  Recreation  and  Parks,  City  of  Los  Angeles 

p.  132 

Costume  for  Joan  Crawford,  created  for 
"Letty  Lynton,"  mgm,  1932 
Silk  crepe  and  sequins 
cb:  54  in.  (137.2  cm) 

Museum  Collection,  The  Fashion  Institute  of 
Design  &  Merchandising,  from  the  Department 
of  Recreation  and  Parks,  City  of  Los  Angeles 
p.  131 


Two-Piece  Dress  and  Cape,  "Shades 

of  Picasso,"  1944 

Rayon  crepe 

Top  cb:  27  in.  (68.6  cm);  Skirt  cb:  41  in. 

(104  cm);  Cape  cb:  56  in.  (142.2  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  the  artist 

Laura  Aguilar 

United  States,  b.  1959 

Nature  #7  Self-Portrait,  1996 

Gelatin-silver  print 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  252 

Gregory  Ain 

United  States,  1908-1988 

Anselem  A.  Ernst  Residence,  Los  Angeles, 

Perspective  Elevation,  1937 

Graphite  on  paper 

20  X  30  in.  (50.8  X  76.2  cm) 

Architecture  and  Design  Collection, 

University  Art  Museum,  ucsb 

John  Alberts 

United  States,  1886-1931 

Windswept  Trees,  1916 

Monotype 

8'/2  X  12%  in.  (21.6  X  32.4  cm) 

Victoria  Dailey 

Herman  Oliver  Albrecht 

Germany,  active  United  States,  1876-1944 

Three  Women  in  White,  c.  1910 

Gelatin-silver  print 

95/8  X  5 1/4  in.  (24.5  X  13.3  cm) 

The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 

p.  96 

Maxine  Albro 

United  States,  1903-1966 

Fiesta  of  the  Flowers,  1937 

Oil  on  canvas 

108  X  104  in.  (274.3  X  264.2  cm) 

Robert  Bijou  Fine  Arts 

p.  140 

Lynn  Aldrich 

United  States,  b.  1944 

Breaker,  1999 

Steel,  wood,  fiberglass,  and  garden  hoses 
36  X  32  X  50  in.  (91.4  X  81.3  X  127  cm) 
LACMA,  Modern  and  Contemporary  Art 
Council,  2000  Art  Here  and  Now  purchase 


Anders  Aldrin 

Sweden,  active  United  States,  1889-1970 

Zabriskie  Point,  Death  Valley,  1932 
Color  woodcut 
12V8  X  15  in.  (30.8  X  38.1  cm) 
The  Annex  Galleries 

Peter  Alexander 

United  States,  b.  1939 

Cloud  Box,  1966 

Cast  polyester  resin 

10  X  10  x  10  in.  (25.4  X  25.4  X  25.4  cm) 

Private  collection,  Los  Angeles 

p.  209 

NedaAI-Hilali 

Czechoslovakia,  active  United  States,  b.  1938 

Untitled  #216, 1981 
Hand-painted  plaited  paper 
48  X  48  in.  (121.9  X  121.9  cm) 
Collection  of  Lydia  and  Chuck  Levy 

Carlos  Almaraz 

Mexico,  active  United  States,  1941-1989 

Suburban  Nightmare,  1983 

Oil  on  canvas 

37x45  in.  (94  x114.3  cm) 

The  Buck  Collection,  Laguna  Hills,  California 

P-247 

City  Bridge,  1989 
Lift-ground  aquatint 
3o'/2  X  24  in.  (77.5  X  61  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Elsa  Flores  Almaraz 
and  Maya  Almaraz 

D.  L.  Alvarez 

United  States,  b.  1962 

Redwood  (pbn#i8),  1996 
Blue  pencil  on  paper 
31  X26  in.  (78.8x66  cm) 
Collection  of  John  Bransten 

Mabel  Alvarez 

United  States,  1891-1985 

Dream  of  Youth,  1925 

Oil  on  canvas 

58  X  50 '/4  in.  (147.3  X  127.6  cm) 

Collection  of  Jeri  L.  Waxenberg 

Laura  Andreson 

United  States,  1902-1999 

Teapot,  1944 

Earthenware,  glazed 

5  X  6V2  X  9V2  in.  (12.7  X  16.5  X  24.1  cm) 

Scripps  College,  Claremont,  California, 

Marer  Collection 


Bowl,  c.  1955 

Earthenware 

h:  7yi6  in.  (17.8  cm);  d:  jVh  in.  (18.1  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Bernard  Kester 

Lawrence  Andrews 

United  States,  b.  1964 

And  They  Came  Riding  into  Town  on  Black 

and  Silver  Horses,  1992 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  thirty  minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Gallery 

Paule  Anglim 

Nancy  Angelo 

United  States 
Candace  Compton 

United  States 

Nun  and  Deviant,  1976 

Videotape  (black  and  white,  with  sound, 

twenty  minutes) 

Lent  by  Video  Data  Bank 

Ant  Farm 

Chip  Lord  (United  States,  b.  1944),  Doug 
Michaels  (United  States,  b.  1944),  and  Curtis 
Schreier  (United  States,  b.  1944) 

Media  Burn,  1975 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  twenty-three 
minutes)  of  media  event  in  Oakland,  California 
Lent  by  Video  Data  Bank 

Eleanor  Antin 

United  States,  b.  1935 

The  King  ofSolana  Beach,  1974-75 

Eleven  gelatin-silver  prints  mounted  on  board; 

one  text  panel 

Each:  6  x  9  in.  (15.2  x  22.9  cm) 

Collection  of  Gary  and  Tracy  Mezzatesta 

p.  232 

Virgil  Apger 

United  States,  1903-1994 

Carmen  Miranda,  Publicity  Photo  for 

"A  Date  with  Judy,"  mgm,  1948 

Carbro  print 

9%  X  8  in.  (24.8  X  20.3  cm) 

Sid  Avery/Motion  Picture  and  Television 

Photo  Archive 

p.  178 

Robert  Arneson 

United  States,  1930-1992 

John  with  Art,  1964 

Ceramic,  glazed  with  polychrome  epoxy 

341/2  X  18  in.  (87.6  x  45.7  cm) 

Collection  of  the  Seattle  Art  Museum,  gift 

of  Manuel  Neri 


California  Artist,  1982 

Stoneware,  glazed 

68 '4  X  27 Vi  in.  (173.36  x  69.85  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Art,  gift  of  the 

Modern  Art  Council 

p.  258 

Skip  Arnold 

United  States,  b.  1957 

Hood  Ornament,  1992 

Videotape  (black  and  white,  without 

sound,  ninety  seconds)  of  a  public  activity 

in  Sun  Valley,  California 

Lent  by  the  artist 

John  Arvanites 

United  States,  b.  1943 

The  Theo  Tapes,  1986 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  twenty- five 

minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Kyoko  Asano 

Japan,  active  United  States,  b.  1933 

Sea,  1987 

Lithograph 

30  X  29'yi6  in.  (76.2  X  76  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided 

by  the  Graphic  Arts  Council,  gift  of  Cirrus 

Editions 

Ruth  Asawa 

United  States,  b.  1926 

Untitled,  1959 
Monel  in  tubular  knit 
84  X  24  in.  (213.4  X  61  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Asco 

Harry  Gamboa  Jr.  (United  States,  b.  1951), 
Gronk  (United  States,  b.  1954).  Willie  Herron 
(United  States,  b.  i95i)>  and  Patssi  Valdez 
(United  States,  b.  1951) 

Spray  Paint  lacma,  1972 

Photo  documentation  of  guerrilla  art  action 

by  Harry  Gamboa  Jr.,  transferred  to  videotape 

for  this  exhibition 

Lent  by  Harry  Gamboa  Jr. 

p.  227 

Instant  Mural,  1974 

Super  8  film  of  performance  (color,  without 

sound,  ninety  seconds),  transferred  to 

videotape 

Lent  by  Harry  Gamboa  Jr. 

p.  227 


David  Avalos 

United  States,  b.  1947 
Louis  Hock 
United  States,  b.  1948 
Elizabeth  Sisco 

United  States,  b.  1954 

Arte  Reembolso/Art  Rebate,  1993 
Excerpts  from  videotape  documentation 
(news  coverage;  color,  with  sound,  fourteen 
minutes)  of  event  in  San  Diego,  California 
Lent  by  Louis  Hock 
p.  268 

David  Avalos 

United  States,  b.  1947 
Deborah  Small 

United  States,  b.  1948 

Mis'ce'ge'NATiON,  1991 

Photo  documentation  of  installation  at 

Colorado  University  Art  Gallery,  University 

of  Colorado,  Boulder,  transferred  to  videotape 

for  this  exhibition 

Lent  by  the  artists 

p.  265 

Ramona:  Birth  of  a  Mis'ce'ge'NATioN,  2000 

Coproduced  with  William  Franco  (United 

States,  b.  1957)  and  Miki  Seifert  (United  States, 

b. 1958) 

Excerpts  from  videotape  (color,  with  sound, 

twenty-five  minutes),  used  in  original 

installation 

Lent  by  David  Avalos  and  Deborah  Small 

Sid  Avery 

United  States,  b.  1918 

Rock  Hudson,  Out  of  the  Shower  at  His 

Hollywood  Hills  Home,  1952 

Gelatin-silver  print 

11x14  in.  (27.9x35.6  cm) 

Sid  Avery/Motion  Picture  and  Television 

Photo  Archive 

P-174 

Dwight  D.  Eisenhower  in  La  Quinta, 

California,  1961 

Gelatin-silver  print 

n  X  14  in.  (27.9  X  35.6  cm) 

Sid  Avery/Motion  Picture  and  Television 

Photo  Archive 

p.  158 

Glenna  Boltuch  Avila 

United  States,  b.  1953 

Untitled,  1986 

Screenprint 

25  X  38^/4  in.  (63.5  X  97.2  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided 

by  the  Art  Museum  Council 


Anthony  Aziz 

United  States,  b.  1961 
Sammy  Cucher 

Venezuela,  active  United  States,  b.  1958 

Plasmorphica  #8 

From  the  series  Plasmorphica,  1996 

Chromogenic  development  (Ektacolor)  print 

40 1/8  X  30  in.  (101.9  X  76.2  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

Ernest  Bachrach 

United  States,  1899-1973 

Dolores  Del  Rio,  1932 

Gelatin-silver  print 

10  X  8  in.  (25.4  X  20.3  cm) 

Sid  Avery/Motion  Picture  and  Television 

Photo  Archive 

p.  133 

John  Baldessari 

United  States,  b.  1931 

Looking  East  on  4th  and  C,  1967-68 
Acrylic  and  photo  emulsion  on  canvas 
59x45  in.  (149.9x114.3  cm) 
San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art, 
Accessions  Committee  Fund:  gift  of  Evelyn  and 
Walter  Haas,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Donald  G.  Fisher, 
Modern  Art  Council,  and  Norman  C.  Stone 
p.  199 

California  Map  Project,  Part  I:  California,  1969 
Assisted  by  George  and  Judy  Nicolaidis 
Eleven  chromogenic  development  prints  and 
typewritten  text  on  paper,  mounted  on  board 
Each  print:  8  x  10  in.  (20.3  x  25.4  cm);  Text: 
81/2  X  11  in.  (21.6  X  27.9  cm) 
Private  collection,  Munich 

Adele  Elizabeth  Balkan 

United  States,  1907-1999 

Sketch  for  Costume  for  Anna  May  Wong,  created 

for  "Daughter  of  the  Dragon,"  Paramount,  1936 

Gouache  on  board 

loVi  X  15  in.  (51.4x38.1  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Adele  Elizabeth  Balkan 

P- 134 

Lewis  Baltz 

United  States,  b.  1945 

East  Wall,  Nees  Turf  Supply  Company,  38T 

Pullman,  Costa  Mesa 

From  the  series  The  New  Industrial  Parks 

near  Irvine,  California,  1974 

Gelatin-silver  print 

6x9  in.  (15.2  X  22.9  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 


West  Wall,  Unoccupied  Industrial  Building, 

20  Airway  Drive,  Costa  Mesa 

From  the  series  The  New  Industrial  Parks 

near  Irvine,  California,  1974 

Gelatin-silver  print 

6x9  in.  (15.2x22.9  cm) 

LACMA,  promised  gift  of  an  anonymous  donor, 

Los  Angeles 

p.  199 

11777  Foothill  Boulevard,  Los  Angeles, 

California,  1991,  printed  1992 

Silver  dye-bleach  (Cibachrome)  print, 

edition  1/3 

48  x  96  in.  (129.6  X  243.8  cm) 

LACMA,  commissioned  with  funds  provided  by 

Michael  R.  Kaplan,  M.D.,  Gary  B.  Sokol,  and 

the  Horace  W.  Goldsmith  Foundation 

Travis  Banton 

United  States,  1894-1958 

Costume  for  Marlene  Dietrich,  created 

for  "Desire,"  Paramount,  1935 

Silk  chiffon,  silk  crepe,  and  fox  fur 

Dress  cb:  50V2  in.  (128.3  cm);  Jacket  cb:  29  in. 

(73.7  cm) 

Museum  Collection,  The  Fashion  Institute  of 

Design  &  Merchandising,  from  the  Department 

of  Recreation  and  Parks,  City  of  Los  Angeles 

p.  132 

Uta  Barth 

Germany,  active  United  States,  b.  1958 

Field  #3, 1995 

Chromogenic  development  (Ektacolor) 

print  on  wood  panel 

23  X  28%  in.  ( 58.4  X  73  cm) 

Collection  of  Merle  and  Gerald  Measer 

Crawford  Barton 

United  States,  1943-1993 

Untitled,  c.  1975 

Gelatin-silver  print 

14  X  8  in.  (35.6  X  20.3  cm) 

CiLBT  Historical  Society  of  Northern  California 

p.  219 

Loren  Barton 

United  States,  1893-1975 

Sunny  Day  at  Balboa,  c.  1945 

Watercolor  and  graphite  on  paper 

241/8  X  30'/4  in.  (61.3  X  76.9  cm) 

LACMA,  the  California  Water  Color  Society 

Collection  of  Water  Color  Paintings 


Ruth-Marion  Baruch 

United  States,  1922-199H 

Shakespeare  Couple,  Haight-Aihhury,  1967 
Gelatin-silver  print 
7x10  in.  (17.8x25.4  cm) 
Estate  of  Ruth-Marion  Baruch 
p.  217 

Black  Panther  Guard,  1968 
Gelatin-silver  print 
10  X  8  in.  (25.4  X  20.3  cm) 
Estate  of  Ruth-Marion  Baruch 

Ernest  Allan  Batchelder 

United  States,  1875-1957 

Batchelder  Tile  Company,  United  States, 

1909-32 

Five  Tiles  with  Mayan  Motifs,  1912-32 

Earthenware 

4:  4  X  4  in.  (10.2  X  10.2  cm);  1:4x5  in. 

(10.2  X  12.7  cm) 

Collection  of  Norman  Karlson 

Tile  with  the  Santa  Barbara  Mission,  1912-32 

Earthenvs'are 

8  X  8  in.  (20.3  X  20.3  cm) 

Collection  of  Norman  Karlson 

Tile  Panel,  c.  1915-20 

Earthenware 

24 V2  X  241/2  in.  (62.2  X  62.2  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Theodore  C.  Coleman 

Tile,  c.  1925 

Earthenware 

8y4  X  8%  in.  (22.2  X  22.2  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided 

by  Mrs.  Logan  Henshaw,  Caroline  Blanchard 

Brownstein,  and  Mrs.  Edwin  Greble 

Bauer  Pottery 

United  States,  1885-1962 

One  Orange  and  One  Yellow  Garden 

Oil  Jar,  c.  1920 

Ceramic 

Each:  16  x  12  x  12  in.  (40.6  x  30.5  x  30.5  cm) 

Ron  and  Susan  Vander  Molen 

Mllo  Baughman 

United  States 

For  Glenn  of  California,  United  States, 

c.  1952-c.  1979 

Desk,  c.  1975 

Wood 

29%  X  57%  in.  {75.6  X  146.7  cm) 

Courtesy  Susan  and  Michael  Rich 


Gustave  Baumann 

Germany,  active  United  States,  1881-1971 

Sequoia  Forest,  1928 

Color  woodcut 

I2y8  x  12%  in.  (32.8  x  32.4  cm) 

Lent  by  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Museum  of 

New  Mexico,  purchased  with  funds  raised 

by  the  School  of  American  Research 

Wirjdswept  Eucalyptus,  c.  1929 

Color  woodcut 

95/8  x  ii'/2  in.  (24.4  x  29.2  cm) 

Lent  by  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Museum  of 

New  Mexico,  purchased  with  funds  raised 

by  the  School  of  American  Research 

p.  69 

Robert  A.  Bechtle 

United  States,  b.  1932 

'67  Chrysler,  1967 

Oil  on  canvas 

36  X  40  in.  (91.4  X  101.6  cm) 

Lent  by  Ruth  and  Alfred  Heller,  courtesy 

Gallery  Paule  Anglim,  San  Francisco 

p.  206 

Larry  Bell 

United  States,  b.  1939 

Cube,  1966 

Vacuum-coated  glass 

12  X  12  X  12  in.  (30.5  X  30.5  X  30.5  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Frederick  Weisman  Company 

p.  211 

Jordan  Belson 

United  States,  b.  1926 

Allures,  i960 

16  mm  film  (color,  with  sound,  seven  minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Billy  Al  Bengston 

United  States,  b.  1934 

Lady  for  a  Night,  1970 
Lacquer  on  aluminum 
36  X  34  in.  (91.4  X  86.4  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 
p.  204 

Mark  Bennett 

United  States,  b.  1956 

Home  of  Mike  &  Carol  Brady,  1986-95 
Ink  and  pencil  on  graph  vellum  paper 
24 '/4  X  36 '4  in.  {61.5  X  92.1  cm) 
Collection  of  Suzanne  and  Howard  Feldman 

Home  of  Francis  "Gidget"  Lawrence,  1995 

Ink  and  pencil  on  graph  vellum  paper 

24 '/2  X  36  W  in.  (62.2  X  92.1  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Mark  Moore 

Gallery 


Fletcher  Benton 

United  States,  b.  1931 

Synchronetic  c-4400-s  Series,  1966 
Aluminum  and  motorized  Plexiglas  panels 
70  X  60  x  9  in.  (177.8  X  152.4  x  22.9  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Peter  and  Cynthia  Williams, 
Livermore,  California 

David  Berg 

United  States,  b.  1956 

Negative  Painting  No.  6, 1997 

Gelatin-silver  print;  oil  on  Mylar 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm);  2'/2  x  2V2  in. 

(6.4  X  6.4  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

Tony  Berlant 

United  States,  b.  1941 

Venus,  1966 

Photomechanical  reproduction  on  sheet 

metal,  nailed  to  painted  wood  construction 

and  ceramic 

15  X  10  X  14  in.  (38.1  X  25.4  X  35.6  cm) 

Collection  of  Helen  and  Tony  Berlant 

Wallace  Berman 

United  States,  1926-1976 

Untitled  (Jazz  Drawing  of  Slim  Gaillard), 

c.  1940 

Pencil  on  paper 

12%  X  ioiyi6  in.  (32  X  25  cm) 

Collection  of  the  Estate  of  Wallace  Berman 

p.  182 

Semina,  1955-64 

Hand-printed  magazines  (nine  issues) 

Varied  dimensions;  minimum:  5'/2  x  3V8  in. 

(14  X  7.9  cm);  maximum:  11  x  9  in. 

(27.9  x  22.9  cm) 

Private  collection,  courtesy  L.A.  Louver  Gallery 

p.  182 

Topanga  Seed,  1969-70 

Dolomite  rock  and  transfer  letters 

38  X  47  x  46  in.  (96.5  X  119.4  X  116.8  cm) 

The  Grinstein  Family 

p.  214 

Cindy  Bernard 

United  States,  b.  1959 

Topography:  Dry  Head  Agate  #9  (Detail  1),  1995 

Chromogenic  development  (Ektacolor)  print, 

edition  2/3 

30  X  40  in.  (76.2  X  101.6  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 


1ST    OF    THE    E)l 


Edward  Biberman 

United  States,  1904-1986 

Mandalay  Beach,  1937 

Oil  on  canvas 

30  X  20  in.  (76.2  X  50.8  cm) 

Collection  of  Suzanne  W.  and  Tibor  Zada 

Conspiracy,  c.  1955 

Oil  on  board 

261/2  X41V2  in.  (67.3  X  105.4  cm) 

Courtesy  Suzanne  W.  Zada  of  Gallery  "Z" 

p.  179 

The  Hollywood  Palladium,  c.  1955 
Oil  on  Celotex  on  board 
36  X  48  in.  ( 91.4  X  121.9  cm) 
Irell  &  Manella,  llp 
p.  164 

Sepulveda  Dam,  n.d. 

Oil  on  canvas 

20  X35  in.  {50.8  X  88.9  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift  of 

the  Estate  of  Marjorie  Eaton  by  exchange 

p.  108 

Sandow  Birk 

United  States,  b.  1964 

Bombardment  of  Fort  Point,  1996 
00  and  acrylic  on  canvas 

54  X  43  in.  (137.2  X  109.2  cm) 
Peter  and  Isabel  Blumberg 
P-243 

Elmer  Bischoff 

United  States,  1916-1991 

Blues  Singer,  1954 
Oil  on  canvas 

55  X  72  in.  (139.7  X  182.9  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift 
of  Bruce  and  Betty  Friedman  in  memory 
of  Frederic  P.  Snowden 

Two  Figures  at  the  Seashore,  1957 

Oil  on  canvas 

56%  X  56%  in.  (144.5  X  144-5  cm) 

Collection  of  the  Orange  County  Museum  of 

Art,  museum  purchase  with  additional  funds 

provided  by  the  National  Endowment  for  the 

Arts,  a  federal  agency 

P-175 

Franz  Bischoff 

Austria,  active  United  States,  1864-1929 

Vase  with  Roses,  c.  1908 

Porcelain 

h:  14'/4  in.  (34.9  cm) 

The  Irvine  Museum,  Irvine,  California 


California  Poppies  Vase,  n.d. 

Porcelain 

h:  13 -'4  in.  (33.21  cm) 

The  Irvine  Museum,  Irvine,  California 

p.  78 

Ginny  Bishton 

United  States,  b.  1967 

Walking  1,  1998 

Photo  collage  on  paper 

17  X  18V2  in.  (43.2  X  47  cm) 

LACMA,  Modern  and  Contemporary  Art 

Council,  1998  Art  Here  and  Now  purchase 

Lee  Everett  Blair 

United  States,  1911-1993 

Dissenting  Factions,  1940 
Watercolor  on  paper 
15  X  28 '/i  in.  (38.1  X  72.4  cm) 
Collection  of  Nancy  and  lohn  Weare 
p.  112 

Nayland  Blake 

United  States,  b.  i960 

Hans  Bellmer  as  Monsieur  Dolmance,  1991-93 
Wood,  cloth,  and  metal 
73  X  14  X  12  in.  (185.4  X  35.6  X  30.5  cm) 
Courtesy  Matthew  Marks  Gallery,  New  York 

Porter  Blanchard 

United  States,  1886-1973 

Coffee  Set  and  Tray,  1930-50 

Pewter  and  hardwood 

Tray  d:  i8'/2  in.  (47  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Jo  Ann  and  Julian  Ganz  Jr. 

p.  no 

Anton  Blazek 

Czechoslovakia,  active  United  States,  1902-1974 

Chartreuse  Bottle-Vase;  Red  and  White  Ridged 

Pitcher;  Striated  Orange  Bottle,  1945-55 

Slip  cast,  glazed 

h:  15%  in.  (39.7  cm),  d:  2  in.  (5.1  cm);  h:  u'/s 

in.  (28.3  cm),  d:  2  in.  (5.1  cm);  h:  17%  (45.4 

cm),  d:  2  in.  (5.1  cm) 

Private  collection 

Chaz  Bojorquez 

United  States,  b.  1949 

Los  Avenues,  1987 

Serigraph 

51  X  39  in.  (129.5  X  99.1  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  246 


Jonathan  Borofsky 

United  States,  b.  1942 

Flying  Man  with  Briefcase, 

fltNo.  28:6932,1983-86 

Multiple  sculpture,  painted  Gatorfoam 

941/2  X  24 '/2  X  1  in.  (240  X  62.2  X  2.5  cm) 

Collection  of  Joanna  Giallelis 

P-259 

Dorr  Bothwell 

United  States,  b.  1902 

Hollywood  Success,  1940 

Oil  on  canvas 

36  X  30  Vs  in.  ( 91.4  X  76.5  cm ) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

Museum  Collection 

Translation  from  the  Maya,  1940 

Oil  on  Celotex 

23  X  19  in.  (58.4  X  48.3  cm) 

Collection  of  the  Orange  County  Museum  of  Art 

p.  136 

Cornells  Botke 

Holland,  active  United  States,  1887-1954 

Foam  and  Cypress,  Point  Lobos,  1928 

Etching 

11 '/2  X  10%  in.  (29.2  X  27.3  cm) 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  A.  Botke 

Gaza  Bowen 

United  States,  b.  1944 

The  American  Dream,  1990 

Neoprene,  sponge,  clothespins,  found  objects, 

plywood,  pressboard,  and  kidskin 

17  X  15  X  15  in.  (43.2  X  38.1  X  38.1  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco,  Museum 

Purchase,  gift  of  the  Textile  Arts  Council 

P-  255 

Robert  Brady 

United  States,  b.  1946 

Innocence:  An  Open  Book,  1997-98 
Mixed  media 

23^/2  x  24  in.  ( 59.7  x  61  cm) 
Courtesy  Braunstein/Quay  Gallery 

Rex  Brandt 

United  States,  b.  1914 

Surfriders,  1959 

Oil  on  canvas 

26  X  36  in.  (66  x  91.4  cm) 

The  E.  Gene  Grain  Collection 

P-175 


Maurice  Braun 

Hungary,  active  Unilcd  States,  1877-1941 

Bay  and  City  of  San  Diego  [also  known 
as  San  Diego  from  Point  Loma],  1910 
Oil  on  canvas  and  board 
}oVs  X  34'/8  in.  (76.5  x  86.7  cm) 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  R.  Uick  Jr. 

Moonrise  over  San  Diego  Bay,  1915 

Oil  on  canvas 

22  X  28  in.  (55.9  X  71.1  cm) 

Collection  of  loseph  Ambrose  and  Michael 

Feddersen 

P-75 

California  Valley  Farm,  c.  1920 
Oil  on  canvas 
40  X  50  in.  (101.6  X  127  cm) 
Collection  of  Joseph  L.  Moure 

Brayton  Laguna  Pottery 

United  States,  1927-68 

Two  Tiles  with  Sleeping  Mexican  Motifs, 

1927-68 

Earthenware,  glazed 

7  X  7  in.  (17.8  X  17.8  cm);  6  x  6  in. 

(15.2  X  15.2  cm) 

Collection  of  Norman  Karlson 

Anne  M.  Bremer 

United  States,  1868-1923 

The  Sentinels,  c.  1918 

Oil  on  canvas 

44 '/2  X  49V2  in.  (113  X  125.7  cm) 

Mills  College  Art  Museum,  Oakland,  California 

p.  126 

An  Old  Fashioned  Garden,  n.d. 

Oil  on  canvas 

20  X  24  in.  (50.8  X  61  cm) 

Mills  College  Art  Museum,  Oakland,  California 

p.  80 

Anne  W.  Brigman 

United  States,  1869-1950 

Infinitude,  c.  1905 

Gelatin-silver  print 

5%6  X  9'/i6  in.  (13.9  X  24.4  cm) 

The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 

p.  83 

The  Lone  Pine,  c.  1908 
Gelatin-silver  print 
9'/i6  X  7 'Via  in.  (24.3  X  19.6  cm) 
The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 
p.  29 

The  Strength  of  Loneliness,  1914 

Gelatin-silver  print 

9'/i6  X  7 1/2  in.  (24.3  X  19.1  cm) 

The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 


Horace  Bristol 

United  Slates,  1908-1998 

Demonstrations  Were  Almost  a  Daily 

Occurrence  in  San  Francisco  during  the 

Depression,  1935 

Gelatin-silver  print 

6  X  9  in.  (15.2  X  22.9  cm) 

Estate  of  Horace  Bristol 

Trimming  the  Bark  of  a  Redwood  Log,  1937 
Gelatin-silver  print 

9'/2  X  10 '/2  in.  (24.1  X  26.7  cm) 
Estate  of  Horace  Bristol 

Joad  Family  Applying  for  Relief  1938 

Gelatin-silver  print 

i2"/i6  X  9"/i6  in.  (32.2  X  24.6  cm) 

Estate  of  Horace  Bristol 

p.  121 

Migrant  Worker  under  Culvert,  1938 
Gelatin-silver  print 
7'/2  X  9'/2  in.  (19.1  X  24.1  cm) 
Estate  of  Horace  Bristol 

Charles  Brittin 

United  States,  b.  1928 

Arrest  (Legs)  Downton/n  Federal  Building, 

Los  Angeles,  California,  c.  1965 

Gelatin-silver  print 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Craig  KruU  Gallery, 

Santa  Monica 

p.  220 

Jessica  Bronson 

United  States,  b.  1963 

Lost  Horizon,  1998 

CAv  laser  disc,  white  television,  laser  disc 

player,  wall-mounted  monitor  shelf,  and  cables, 

edition  1/3 

22  X  18  X  18  in.  (55.9  X  45.7  X  45.7  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Jeff  Brouws 

United  States,  b.  1955 

Interstate  40,  Needles,  California,  1995 

Chromogenic  development  print 

18  X  18  in.  (45.7  X  45.7  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Craig  Krull  Gallery, 

Santa  Monica 

Joan  Brown 

United  States,  1938-1990 

Girl  in  Chair,  1962 

Oil  on  canvas 

60  X  48  in.  (152.4  X  121.9  cm) 

LACM  A,  gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robert  H.  Ginter 

p.  176 


[William]  Theophilus  Brown 

United  States,  b.  1919 

Muscatine  Diver,  1962-63 

Oil  on  canvas 

60  X  40  in.  (152.4  X  101.6  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift 

of  the  artist 

Bruce  of  L.A.  [Bruce  Bellas] 

United  States,  1907-1974 

Untitled  (Gene  Hilbert),  1951 
Gelatin -silver  print 
10  X  8  in.  (25.4  X  20.3  cm) 
Private  collection,  Santa  Monica 

Untitled  (Dick  Pardee),  i960 
Gelatin-silver  print 
10  X  8  in.  (25.4  X  20.3  cm) 
Collection  of  John  Sonsini 

Nancy  Buchanan 

United  States,  b.  1946 

California  Stories,  1983 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  ten  minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Nancy  Buchanan 

United  States,  b.  1946 
Barbara  Smith 

United  States,  b.  1931 

With  Love  from  A  to  B,  1977 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  nine  minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artists 


Beniamino  B.  Bufano 

Italy,  active  United  States,  ( 


-1970 


Chinese  Man  and  Woman,  1921 

Stoneware,  glazed 

3i'/2  X  12V2  X  7'/2  in.  (80  X  31.8  x  19.1  cm) 

Lent  by  The  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art, 

gift  of  George  Blumenthal,  1924 

P-143 

C.  S.  [Clarence  Sinclair]  Bull 

United  States,  1895-1979 

Anna  May  Wong,  1927 

Gelatin-silver  print 

11%  X  9  in.  (29.8  X  22.9  cm) 

Collection  of  Louis  E  D'Elia 

P-134 

Wynn  Bullock 

United  States,  1902-1975 

The  Limpet,  1969 
Gelatin-silver  print 

5'/i6  X  12 '/16  in.  (12.9  X  30.7  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  the  Wynn  and  Edna 
Bullock  Trust 


Chris  Burden 

United  States,  b.  1946 

Trans-Fixed,  1974 

Photo  documentation  of  performance 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  207 

Relic  from  "Trans-Fixed"  1974 

Two  nails 

L  (of  each  nail):  1%  in.  (4.5  cm);  d  (of  each 

nail  head):  V2  in.  (1.27  cm) 

Collection  of  Jasper  Johns 

L.A.P.D.  Uniform,  1993 

Thirty  uniforms  and  thirty  Beretta  handguns, 

wool  serge,  wood,  and  metal 

Each  uniform:  88  x  72  x  6  in.  (223.5  x  182.9  x 

15.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist  (nos.  1-12, 14-16),  the  Fabric 

Workshop  (nos.  23,  28,  30),  Stephen  Oakes 

and  Olivia  Georgia  (no.  13),  Gilbert  and  Lila 

Silverman  (no.  29),  Marion  Boulton  Stroud 

(nos.  20-22,  24-27),  and  Dr.  Lothar  Tirala 

(nos.  17-19) 

p.  245 

Hans  Burkhardt 

Switzerland,  active  United  States,  1904-1994 

Reagan — Blood  Money,  1945 

Oil  on  canvas 

29x22  in.  (73.7x55.9  cm) 

Hans  G.  and  Thordis  W.  Burkhardt 

Foundation,  courtesy  Jack  Rutberg  Gallery, 

Los  Angeles 

P- 179 

Andrew  Bush 

United  States,  b.  1956 

Man  travelling  southeast  on  the  101  Freeway 
at  approximately  71  mph  somewhere  around 
Camarillo,  California,  on  a  summer  evening 
in  1995 

From  the  Freeway  series,  1995 
Chromogenic  development  print 
30  x  40  in.  (76.2  x  101.6  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Jean  Williams  Cacicedo 

United  States,  b.  1948 

Tee  Pee:  An  Indian  Dedication,  1988 

Wool,  felted,  hand  dyed,  reverse  appiiqued 

51  X  60  in.  (129.5  x  152.4  cm) 

Collection  of  Julie  Schafler  Dale,  courtesy  of 

Julie:  Artisans'  Gallery,  New  York 

p.  261 


John  Cage 

United  States,  1912-1992 

Seven  Day  Diary/Not  Knowing,  1978 

Seven  prints  using  etching,  drypoint,  and 

aquatint  on  Rives  papers 

Each  sheet:  12  x  17  in.  (30.7  x  43  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco,  Crown 

Point  Press  Archive,  Gift  of  Kathan  Brown 


Jerome  Caja 

United  States,  1958-1995 

Virgin  at  the  Hamper,  1989 

Nail  polish 

9  x7'/4  in.  (22.9  x  18.4  cm) 

Collection  of  Anna  van  der  Meulen 

Bloody  Marys  from  Heaven,  1994 
Nail  polish,  enamel,  and  white-out 
13 '/2  x  13 1/2  in.  (34.3  x  34.3  cm) 
Collection  of  Anna  van  der  Meulen 

Head  of  John  the  Baptist,  n.d. 

Charles  Sexton's  ashes  and  nail  polish  on  resin 

d:  11  in.  (27.9  cm) 

Collection  of  Anna  van  der  Meulen 

Toasted  White  Bread  (Having  a  Nice  Day),  n.d. 
Nail  polish,  enamel,  and  white-out  on  paper 
121/2  X  9V4  in.  (31.8  x  24.8  cm) 
Collection  of  Anna  van  der  Meulen 

California  China  Products  Company 

United  States,  1911-17 

San  Diego  Backcountry,  1911-13 
Kaospar  clay,  glazed 
6  X  48  in.  (15.2  X  121.9  cm) 
Lent  by  Estelle  and  Jim  Milch 

California  Clay  Products  Company  (CALCO) 

United  States,  1918-33 

Three  Tiles  with  Mayan  Motifs,  1923-33 

Earthenware 

6  X  6  in.  (15.2  X  15.2  cm);  8  x  7  in.  (20.3  x 

17.8  cm);  8x8  (20.3  x  20.3  cm) 

Collection  of  Norman  Karlson 

Tile  with  Parrots,  1923-33 

Earthenware 

i6yi6  x  ^Vs  in.  (41.6  x  14.3  cm) 

Collection  of  Norman  Karlson 

Two  Tiles  with  Peacock  Motifs,  1923-33 

Earthenware 

ii'/4  x  5'/2  in.  (28.6  x  14  cm);  11  x  5  in. 

(27.9  X  12.7  cm) 

Collection  of  Norman  Karlson 


California  Faience 

United  States,  1915-30 

Bowl,  c.  1920 

Earthenware 

h:  2  in.  (5.1  cm);  d:  5=78  in.  (14.3  cm) 

LACMA,  Art  Museum  Council  Fund 

Vase,  c.  1920 
Earthenware 

h:  jVs  in.  (18.1  cm);  d:  4  in.  (10.2  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Max  Palevsky 

Vase,  c.  1920 
Earthenware 

h:  6%  in.  (16.2  cm);  d:  4'/a  in.  (10.5  cm) 
LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided  by 
the  William  Randolph  Hearst  Collection 

Vase,  c.  1920 

Earthenware 

h:  6  in.  (15.2  cm);  d:  3'/2  in.  (8.9  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided 

by  Arthur  Hornblow  Jr. 

p.  88 

Vase,  c.  1920 
Earthenware 

h:  5  in.  (12.7  cm);  d:  5%  in.  (14.9  cm) 
LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided  by 
Mrs.  Leonard  Martin,  the  Los  Angeles  County, 
Mrs.  Charles  Otis,  Emma  Gillman  in  memory 
of  Edith  O.  Bechtel,  Mrs.  Edwin  Greble,  and 
Edwin  C.  Vogel 

Vase,  c.  1920 

Earthenware 

h:  eVs  in.  (16.2  cm);  d:  4'/8  in.  (10.5  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Max  Palevsky 

p.  88 

Vase,  c.  1925 

Porcelain 

h:  toys  in.  (26.4  cm);  d:  8'/4  in.  (21  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Max  Palevsky 

California  Hand  Prints 

United  States,  founded  c.  1940 

Textile  Length,  c.  1941 

Printed  cotton 

61V4  X  48  in.  (155.6  X  121.9  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Esther  Ginsberg  and  Harry  Eden 

in  honor  of  Bob  and  Rhonda  Heintz 

p.  141 

California  Porcelain 

United  States,  c.  1925 

Vase,  c.  1925 

Porcelain 

h:  12  in.  (30.5  cm);  d:  8  in.  (20.3  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Max  Palevsky 


f 


Garry  Carthew 

United  States 

For  Peter  Pepper  Pr 


s,  United  States 


Viking  Clock,  1957 

Painted  wood  and  clocisworks 

15  X  2  in.  (38.1  X  5.1  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  lerome  and  Kveiyn  Ackerman 

Catalina  Sportswear 

United  States,  founded  1907 

Womaris  Two-Piece  Bathing  Suit  and  Jacket, 
late  1940s 
Printed  cotton 

Jacket  cb:  28  in.  (71.1  cm);  Top  l:  42  in. 
{106.7  cm);  Shorts  cb:  17  in.  (43.2  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Harry  Eden  and  Esther 
Ginsberg  in  honor  of  Michael,  Linda, 
and  Alice  Eisenberg 
p.  158 

Enrique  Martinez  Celaya 

Cuba,  active  United  States,  b.  1964 

Map,  1998 

Oil  on  fabric  over  canvas 

48  X  48  X  21/2  in.  (121.9  X  121.9  X  6.4  cm) 

Collection  of  Stephen  Cohen,  Los  Angeles 

P-  253 

Vija  Celmins 

Latvia,  active  United  States,  b.  1938 

Untitled  (Ocean),  1968 
Graphite  on  acrylic  ground  on  paper 
13%  X  i8'/2  in.  (34.9  X  47  cm) 
Collection  of  Helen  and  Tony  Berlant 

Enrique  Chagoya 

Mexico,  active  United  States,  b.  1953 

When  Paradise  Arrived,  1988 
Charcoal  and  pastel  on  paper 
80  X  80  in.  (203.2  X  203.2  cm) 
di  Rosa  Preserve,  Napa,  California 
p.  249 

Wah  Ming  Chang 

United  States,  b.  1917 

Chinatown,  c.  1927 
Woodblock  on  paper 
10 '/4  X  8'/4  in.  (26  X  21  cm) 
The  Michael  D.  Brown  Collection 

Jean  Chariot 

France,  active  United  States  and  Mexico, 
1898-1979 

Idol,  1933 

Color  lithograph 

ii'/4  X  8'yi6  in.  (28.6  X  21.7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Marie  and  lack  Lord 


Woman  Standing,  Child  on  Back,  1933 
Color  lithograph 

I4'yi6  X  10 ^6  in.  (37.6  X  25.9  cm) 
lac;ma,  gift  of  Marie  and  jack  Lord 

Woman  Washing,  1933 

Color  lithograph 

11V4  X  8'/i6  in.  (28.6  X  21.7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Marie  and  Jack  Lord 

Judy  Chicago 

United  States,  b.  1939 

Ciir  Hood,  1964 

Sprayed  acrylic  lacquer  on  1964  Corvair  hood 

48  X  48  X  5  in.  (121.9  X  121.9  X  12.7  cm) 

The  Sutnar  Foundation 

p.  204 

Menstruation  Bathroom  from  Womanhonse, 
a  Collaborative  Site-Specific  Installation,  1972 
Excerpt  from  Womanhouse  by  Johanna 
Demetrakas,  16  mm  film  documentation  (color, 
with  sound,  forty-three  minutes)  of  installation, 
transferred  to  videotape  for  this  exhibition 
Lent  by  the  artist  and  Johanna  Demetrakas 
p.  230 

Georgia  O'Keeffe  Plate  #1, 1979 

Whiteware  with  china  paint 

H'/s  X  14%  in.  (37.8  X  37.2  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art, 

gift  of  Mary  Ross  Taylor 

p.  230 

The  Dinner  Party,  1979 

Excerpt  from  Right  Out  of  History:  The  Making 
of  Judy  Chicago's  "Dinner  Party"  by  Johanna 
Demetrakas,  16  mm  film  documentation  (color, 
with  sound,  seventy-six  minutes)  of  installation, 
transferred  to  videotape  for  this  exhibition 
Lent  by  the  artist  and  Johanna  Demetrakas 

Christo  [Christo  Javacheff] 

Bulgaria,  active  United  States,  b.  1935 

Running  Fence,  Project  for  Sonoma  and  Marin 

Counties,  California.  Collage  1975, 1975 

Pencil,  fabric,  charcoal,  crayon,  technical  data, 

ballpoint  pen,  and  tape 

22x28  in.  (56x71  cm) 

Collection  of  Christo  and  Jeanne-Claude 

Christo  [Christo  Javacheff] 

Bulgaria,  active  United  States,  b.  1935 
Jeanne-Claude  [Jeanne-Claude  de  Guillebon] 

Morocco,  active  United  States,  b.  1935 

Running  Fence,  Sonoma  and  Marin  Counties, 

California,  1972-76, 1976 

Photo  documentation  of  installation 

Lent  by  the  artists 

p.  196 


David  P.  Chun 

United  States,  1899-1989 

To  the  Coit  Tower,  1934-35 

Color  lithograph 

Sheet:  15 '/2  x  15^/8  (39.4  x  39.7  cm) 

United  States  Government  Treasury 

Department,  Public  Works  of  Art  Project, 

Washington,  D.C.,  on  permanent  loan  to 

LACMA 

Unemployed,  n.d. 

Woodcut 

7y4  X  loVa  in.  (19.69  X  27  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art,  Albert 

M.  Bender  Collection,  gift  of  Albert  M.  Bender 

Julius  Cindrich 

United  States,  1890-1981 

Evening,  Green  Bay,  c.  1925 
Gelatin-silver  bromide  print 
io"/i6  X  i3"/i6  in.  (27.2  X  34.7  cm) 
Dennis  and  Amy  Reed  Collection 
p.  125 

Robin  Charles  Clark 

United  States,  b.  1956 

My  Favorite  Flagpole,  1995 
Oil  on  currency  mounted  on  redwood 
11  X  8'/2  X  i'/2  in.  (27.9  X  21.6  X  3.7  cm) 
Collection  of  Bill  Rush 

Emmon  Clarke 

United  States,  b.  1933 

Untitled,  1960s 

Gelatin-silver  print 

11  X  14  in.  (27.9  X35.6  cm) 

Center  for  Photojournalism  and  Visual  History, 

California  State  University,  Northridge 

p.  224 

William  Claxton 

United  States,  b.  1927 

Stan  Getz,  Hollywood,  1954,  printed  1999 

Gelatin-silver  print,  edition  5/25 

23%  X  18^16  in.  (59.4  X  46.5  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Fahey/ Klein  Gallery, 

Los  Angeles 

p.  184 

Marian  Clayden 

England,  active  United  States,  b.  1937 

Rainforest  Coat,  1987 

Silk,  permanently  pleated,  discharge 

and  clamp  resist  dyed 

Coat  cb:  60  in.  (152.4  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 


Stiles  Clements 

United  Slates,  1883-1966 

Morgan,  Walls,  and  Clements,  United  States, 

1920-37 

The  Mayan  Theater,  Los  Angeles,  Hill  Street 

Fafade,  1926-27 

Graphite  on  tracing  paper 

34  X  52  in.  (86.4  X  132.1  cm) 

Courtesy  The  Huntington  Library,  San  Marino, 

California 

Alvin  Langdon  Coburn 

United  States,  1882-1966 

Giant  Palm  Trees,  California  Mission,  1911 

Platinum  print 

15%  X  i2'/4  in.  (40.4  X  31.1  cm) 

Courtesy  George  Eastman  House,  gift 

of  Alvin  Langdon  Coburn 

p.  90 

Robert  Colescott 

United  States,  b.  1925 

I  Gets  a  Thrill  Too  When  I  Sees  De  Koo,  1978 

Acrylic  on  canvas 

84  X  66  in.  (213.4  X  167.6  cm) 

Rose  Art  Museum,  Brandeis  University, 

Waltham,  Massachusetts.  Gift  of  Senator 

and  Mrs.  William  Bradley,  1978 

Will  Connell 

United  States,  1898-1961 

Southern  California  Edison  Plant 
at  Long  Beach,  1932 
Gelatin-silver  print 
16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 
Collection  of  Michael  Dawson 

Make -Up 

From  the  publication  In  Pictures,  c.  1937 

Gelatin-silver  print 

16  '^16  X  13%  in.  (42.7  X  35  cm) 

Photographic  History  Collection,  National 

Museum  of  American  History,  Smithsonian 

Institution 

P-133 

Bruce  Conner 

United  States,  b.  1933 

PORTRAIT  OF  ALLEN  GINSBERG,  I96O 

Wood,  fabric,  feathers,  wax,  tin  can,  metal, 
string,  and  spray  paint 
20  x  11 '/4  X  21  ys  in.  ( 50.8  X  28.6  X  54.3  cm) 
Whitney  Museum  of  American  Art,  New  York, 
purchased  with  funds  from  the  Contemporary 
Painting  and  Sculpture  Committee 


Marika  Contompasis 

United  States,  b.  1948 

Trout  Magnolia  Kimono,  1977 

Wool  yarn,  loom  knitted 

56  X  56  in.  (142.2  X  142.2  cm) 

Collection  of  Julie  Schafler  Dale,  courtesy  of 

Julie:  Artisans'  Gallery,  New  York 

P-231 

Lia  Cook 

United  States,  b.  1942 

Emergence,  1979 

Rayon  and  polyurethane  foam 

69  X  58%  X  3  in.  (175.3  X  148.3  X  7.6  cm) 

Collection  American  Craft  Museum,  New  York. 

Gift  of  Dr.  Richard  Gonzalez  in  memory 

of  Lorraine  Gonzalez,  1981.  Donated  to  the 

American  Craft  Museum  by  the  American 

Craft  Council,  1990 

p.  211 

Presence/Absence:  Legs  and  Knees,  1997 
Cotton  and  rayon,  handwoven  jacquard 
58  X  40  in.  (147-3  x  101.6  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Miles  Coolidge 

United  States,  b.  1963 

Near  Tulare  Lake 

From  the  Central  Valley  series,  1998 

Chromogenic  development  print 

io'/4  X  i32'/2  in.  (26  X 336.6  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  acme,  Los  Angeles 

Ron  Corbin 

United  States,  b.  1943 

Untitled,  1990,  printed  1994 
Gelatin-silver  print 
9^/8  X  9-y8  in.  (24.4  X  24.4  cm) 
LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 
p.  244 

Untitled,  1990,  printed  1994 
Gelatin-silver  print 
9"/i6  X  9%  in.  (24.6  X  24.4  cm) 
LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

Keith  Cottingham 

United  States,  b.  1965 

Triplets 

From  the  Fictitious  Portraits  series,  1993 

Dye-coupler  print  from  a  digitized  source, 

edition  3/15 

22  X  18 '/2  in.  (55.9  X  47  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

P-235 


Craig  Cowan 

United  States,  1947-1993 

Untitled:  Nude,  1992 

Hand-toned  internal  dye-diffusion  transfer 

(Polaroid)  print 

4'/2  X  3'/2  in.  (11.4  X  8.9  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided 

by  Dr.  Eugene  Rogolsky,  M.D. 

Elsie  Crawford 

United  States,  1913-1999 

Zipper  Light  I  and  II,  designed  1965,  fabricated 

1997 

Acrylic 

(I)  h:  18  in.  (45.7  cm);  d:  26  in.  (66  cm); 

(II)  h:  26 '/2  in.  (67.3  cm);  d:  12  in.  (30.5  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  the  artist 

p.  163 

Russell  Crotty 

United  States,  b.  1956 

Letter  from  South  Lagoon,  1989 
Black  ink  on  paper 
72  X  48  in.  (182.9  X  121.9  cm) 
Collection  of  Barry  Sloane 

Rinaldo  Cuneo 

United  States,  1877-1939 

California  Landscape,  1928 

Oil  on  canvas  set  in  three-part  screen 

Overall:  66  x  66  in.  (167.6  x  167.6  cm) 

Private  collection 

p.  117 

Imogen  Cunningham 

United  States,  1883-1976 

Aloe  Bud,  1930 

Gelatin-silver  print 

i2'/2  x  9'/4  in.  (31.8  x  23.5  cm) 

LACMA,  Los  Angeles  County  Fund 

p.  123 

Darryl  Curran 

United  States,  b.  1935 

777, 1968 

Gelatin-silver  print,  high-contrast  lithographic 

film,  wood,  metal,  and  glass 

14  X  11 '/2  X  2  in.  (35.6  X  29.2  x  5.1  cm) 

Lent  by  Darryl  and  Doris  Curran 

Edward  S.  Curtis 

United  States,  1868-1952 

The  Burden  Basket — Coast  Porno 

From  The  North  Atncrican  Indian,  vol.  14 

(1924),  pi.  472 

Gelatin-silver  print 

10  X  8  in.  (25.4  X  20.3  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles 


Canoe  of  Tules — Powo 

From  The  North  Amcrictiii  huluiii.  vol.  14 

(1924),  pi.  489 

Photogravure 

ii'.i  X  15V3  in.  (29.2  X  39.4  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  I.os  Angeles 

A  Desert  Cahuilla  Woiikiii 

From  The  North  Amerkiui  Indian,  vol.  15 

(1924),  pi.  522 

Photogravure 

15 '/2  X  11 '/2  in.  (39.4  X  29.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles 

p.  93 

Mitat — WaUaki 

From  The  North  American  Indian,  vol.  14 

(1924),  pi.  472 

Photogravure 

i5'/2  X  ii'/2  in.  (39.4  X29.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles 

P-93 

"Porno,"  a  Cherokee  Ww  Migrated 

to  California,  1924 

Gelatin-silver  print 

9'/2  X  8  in.  (24.1  X  20.3  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles 

Dana  and  Towers  Photography  Studio 

United  States,  c.  1906 

#115.  Looking  South  from  Stockton 
and  Sutter,  1906 
Gelatin-silver  print 
3'/2  X  11%  in.  (8.9  X  29.8  cm) 
Collection  of  Mrs.  Nancy  Dubois 

#121.  Looking  East  on  Market  Street,  1906 
Gelatin-silver  print 
3'/2  X  11  Vs  in.  (8.9  X  28.3  cm) 
Collection  of  Mrs.  Nancy  Dubois 
pp.  66-67 

Lowell  Darling 

United  States,  b.  1942 
Dana  Atchley 

United  States,  b.  1941 

Campaign  Tapes,  1980 

Videotape  documentation  (color,  with  sound, 

six  minutes)  by  Atchley  of  Darling's  campaign 

for  governor  of  California 

Lent  by  Dana  Atchley 

William  Dassonville 

United  States,  1879-1957 

Half  Dome  and  Clouds,  Merced  River, 

Yosemite  Valley,  c.  1905 

Platinum  print 

jVn  X  9'/8  in.  (18.7  X  23.2  cm) 

Courtesy  Paul  Hertzmann,  Susan  Herzig,  and 

Paul  M.  Hertzmann,  Inc.,  San  Francisco 

PP-  72-73 


Grasses,  c.  1920 

Gelatin-silver  print 

10x8  in.  (25.5  X  20.4  cm) 

The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 

Untitled,  Oil  Refinery,  Richmond, 

California,  c.  1920 

Gelatin-silver  print 

8  X  10  in.  {20.5  X  25.5  cm) 

The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 

Judy  Dater 

United  States,  b.  1941 

Libby,  1971 
Gelatin-silver  print 
14  X  11  in.  (35.6  X  27.9  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 
p.  229 

Nehemiah,  1975,  printed  1981 
Gelatin-silver  print 
loys  X  i3'/2  in.  (26.4  X  34.3  cm) 
Santa  Barbara  Museum  of  Art,  gift 
of  Arthur  and  Yolanda  Steinman 

Arthur  Bowen  Davies 

United  States,  1862-1928 

Pacific  Parnassus,  Mount  Tamalpais,  c.  1905 

Oil  on  canvas 

26 '4  X  40 '/4  in.  (66.7  X  102.2  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco,  Museum 

Purchase,  gift  of  The  Museum  Society  Auxiliary 

p.  83 

Ron  Davis 

United  States,  b.  1937 

Roto,  1968 

Polyester  resin  and  fiberglass 

62  x  136  in.  (157.5  X  345-4  cm) 

LACMA,  Contemporary  Art  Council  Fund 

p.  210 

Robert  Dawson 

United  States,  b.  1950 

Untitled  #1, 1979 

From  the  Mono  Lake  series 

Gelatin-silver  print 

7'/8  x  12  in.  (18.1  X30.5  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Sue  and  Albert  Dorskind 

P-195 

Polluted  New  River,  Mexican/American  Border, 

Calexico,  California,  1989 

From  the  project  Farewell,  Promised  Land 

Gelatin-silver  print 

16  x  20  in.  (40.6  x  50.8  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 


Richard  Day 

Canada,  active  Unii 


d  States,  1896-1972 


California  Boom,  before  1932 

Lithograph 

9x14  in.  (22.9  X  35.5  cm) 

Victoria  Dailey 

Joe  Deal 

United  States,  b.  1947 

Colton,  California,  1978 

From  the  portfolio  The  Fault  Zone,  1981 

Gelatin-silver  print 

8  X  10  in.  (20.3  X  25.4  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Lewis  Baltz 

p.  241 

Georganne  Deen 

United  States,  b.  1951 

Mary's  Lane:  Family  Room,  1993 

Oil  on  linen 

58  X  48  in.  (147.3  X  121.9  cm) 

left  Kerns,  Los  Angeles 

P-  253 

Jay  DeFeo 

United  States,  1929-1989 

The  Jewel,  1959 

Oil  on  canvas 

120  X  55  in.  (304.8  X  139.7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  the  1998  Collectors  Committee 

p.  181 

Stephen  De  Hospodar 

Hungary,  active  United  States,  1902-1959 

Rhythm,  c.  1930 

Woodcut 

9i/4X5'/2  in.  (23.5  xi4cm) 

Victoria  Dailey 

Einar  de  la  Torre 

Mexico,  active  United  States,  b.  1963 
Jamex  de  la  Torre 

Mexico,  active  United  States,  b.  i960 

Marte  y  Venus,  1997 

Glass  and  mixed  media 

62  X  25  in.  (157.5  X  63.5  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artists,  courtesy  Daniel  Saxon 

Gallery 

p.  263 

Pedro  de  Lemos 

United  States,  1882-1954 

Path  to  the  Sea,  c.  1920 
Color  woodcut 
19  X  14%  in.  (48.3  X  37.5  cm) 
Victoria  Dailey 


1ST    OF    THE    E> 


Paul  de  Longpre 

France,  active  United  States,  1855-1911 

Roses  La  France  and  Jack  Noses  with  Clematis 

on  a  Lattice  Work,  No.  36, 1900 

Watercolor  on  paper 

27 V4  X  14%  in.  (69.2  X  37.5  cm) 

lam/ocma  Art  Collection  Trust, 

gift  of  Nancy  Dustin  Wall  Moure 

p.  80 

Neil  M.  Denari 

Uniteci  States,  b.  1957 

Westcoast  Gateway,  wgu:  View  from 

Helicopter,  1989 

Ink  on  Mylar 

18  X  24  in.  (45.7  X  61  cm) 

Lent  by  the  architect,  Neil  M.  Denari  Architects 

Lewis  deSoto 

United  States,  b.  1954 

Tideline,  1981-82 

Photo  documentation  of  sitework  at  Leucadia, 

California,  transferred  to  videotape  for  this 

exhibition 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Ellipse  Tide,  1982 

Photo  documentation  of  sitework,  transferred 

to  videotape  for  this  exhibition 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Plans  for  Wave  System,  1983 
Photo  documentation  of  Diazo  print  drawing 
for  sitework  at  San  Marcos  State  Beach,  trans- 
ferred to  videotape  for  this  exhibition 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Wave  System,  1983 

Photo  documentation  of  sitework  at 
San  Marcos  State  Beach,  transferred  to  video- 
tape for  this  exhibition 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Plans  for  Tideline  2, 1984 

Photo  documentation  of  Diazo  print  drawing 

for  sitework  at  Leucadia,  California,  transferred 

to  videotape  for  this  exhibition 

The  Museum  of  Photographic  Arts,  San  Diego 

Tideline  2, 1984 

Photo  documentation  of  sitework  at  Leucadia, 

California,  transferred  to  videotape  for  this 

exhibition 

The  Museum  of  Photographic  Arts,  San  Diego 

Stephen  De  Staebler 

United  States,  b.  1933 

Seated  Kangaroo  Woman,  1978 

Clay,  fired 

74  x  19  in.  (188  X  48.3  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  215 


Mary  Ann  DeWeese 

United  States,  b.  circa  1914 

For  Catalina  Sportswear,  founded  1907 

Woman's  Bathing  Suit,  mid-i940S 

Hand-printed  Lastex 

cb:  16  in.  (40.6  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  The  Fashion  Group,  Inc., 

of  Los  Angeles 

Kris  Dey 

United  States,  b.  1949 

Ancho  U,  1991 

Painted  cotton  strips 

72  x  96  X  1  in.  (182.9  X  243.8  X  2.5  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

P-  239 

Richard  Diebenkorn 

United  States,  1922-1993 

Berkeley  #32, 1955 
Oil  on  canvas 

59  X  57  in.  (149.9  X  144.8  cm) 
Richard  E.  Sherwood  Family  Collection 
p.  169 

Freeway  and  Aqueduct,  1957 

Oil  on  canvas 

23 '4  X  28  in.  ( 59.1  X  71.1  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  William  and  Regina  Fadiman 

p.  30 

Ocean  Park  Series  #49, 1972 

Oil  on  canvas 

93  X  81  in.  (236.2  X  205.7  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided 

by  Paul  Rosenberg  &  Co.,  Lita  A.  Hazen,  and 

the  David  E.  Bright  Bequest 

p.  194 

Phil  Dike 

United  States,  1906-1990 

Surfer,  c.  1931 

Oil  on  canvas 

32x29  in.  (81.3x73.7  cm) 

Collection  of  A.  Lawrence  and  Anne 

Spooner  Crowe 

p.  127 

Dominic  Di  Mare 

United  States,  b.  1932 

Damns  #8/Where  the  River  Meets  the  Sea,  1984 
Horsehair,  gold  leaf,  wood,  and  photograph 

60  X  23  in.  (152.4  X  58.4  cm) 
American  Craft  Museum,  New  York 


Kim  Dingle 

United  States,  b.  1951 

Two  Girls,  One  with  Head  in  Heaven,  1992 
Oil  on  linen 

72  X  60  in.  (182.9  x  152-4  cm) 
Collection  of  Kimberly  Light 

Christian  Dior 

France,  1905-1957 

For  Cole  of  California,  United  States, 

founded  1923 

Woman's  Bathing  Suit,  1956 

Laton  taffeta 

cb:  19  in.  (48.3  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Fred  Cole  of  Cole  of  California 

John  Divola 

United  States,  b.  1949 

Zuma  No.  21, 1977 

From  the  portfolio  Zuma  One,  1978 

Dye-imbibition  print,  edition  7/30 

i4'/2  X  18  in.  (36.8  X  45.7  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

P-197 

Boats  at  Sea  #1 

Isolated  Houses  #3 

Occupied  Landscapes  #3 

Stray  Dogs  #2 

From  the  portfolio  Four  Landscapes,  1993 

Gelatin-silver  prints 

Each  print:  17%  x  17%  in.  (45.4  x  45.4  cm) 

LACMA,  promised  gift  of  leffrey  Leifer 

Maynard  Dixon 

United  States,  1875-1946 

Airplane,  c.  1930 

Gouache  on  paper 

19  X  17 '/2  in.  (48.3  x  44.5  cm) 

Automobile  Club  of  Southern  California 

p.  108 

Arthur  Burnside  Dodge 

United  States,  1865-1952 

Taking  in  the  News,  1891 

Watercolor  on  paper 

i4xi6'/2  in.  (35.6  X41.9  cm) 

Collection  of  Dr.  Oscar  and  Trudy  Lemer 

Taken  by  Surprise,  n.d. 

Watercolor  on  paper 

14%  X  15  in.  (37.1  X  38.1  cm) 

Collection  of  Dr.  Oscar  and  Trudy  Lemer 

P-97 


Alex  Donis 

United  States,  b.  1964 

Rio.  por  no  Ilorar,  19H8 

Screeiiprint 

39  X  26  in.  (99.1  X  66  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  witii  funds  provided  by  the 

Art  Museum  Council 

Harold  Lukens  Doolittle 

United  States,  1883-1974 

Plaque,  c.  1915 

Brass  and  glass 

11  X  8  in.  (27.9  X  20.3  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided  by  the 

Art  Museum  Council 

Ricardo  Duffy 

United  States,  b.  1951 

The  New  Order,  1996 

Screenprint 

20  X  26  in.  (50.8  X  66  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided  by  the 

Art  Museum  Council 

p.  269 

Raymond  Duncan 

United  States,  1874-1966 

Scarf,  c.  1920 

Wool  crepe,  block  printed  and  brush  dyed 

57  X  25  in.  (144.8  X  63.5  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  the  Estate 

of  Phoebe  H.  Brown 

Tony  Duquette 

United  States,  1914-1999 

Console  Table  and  Mirror,  c.  i960 
Cast  resin,  gold  leaf,  and  mirror 
Table:  96  x  24  in.  (243.8  x  61  cm); 
Mirror:  39  x  27  in.  (99.1  x  68.6  cm) 
Courtesy  Hutton  Wilkinson 

Eliot  Duval 

United  States,  1909-1990 

Third  Street  Traffic,  Bunker  Hill,  1932 

Watercolor  on  paper 

9  x  11%  in.  (22.9  x  29.8  cm) 

Duval  Estate,  George  Stern  Fine  Arts, 

Los  Angeles 

Mexican  Town,  Chavez  Ravine,  c.  1939 
Watercolor  on  paper 
i4'/4  X  21  in.  (36.2  X  53.3  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Tamara  Eliot 


Fannie  Duvall 

United  Slates,  1861-1934 


luan  Capislrano,  ili')7 


Confirnuilion  (.'.la 

1897 

Oil  on  canvas 

20  X  30  in.  {50.8  X  76.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Bowers  Museum  of  Cultural  Art, 

Santa  Ana,  gift  of  Miss  Vesta  A.  Olmstead 

and  Miss  Frances  Campbell 

Charles  Eames 

United  States,  1907-1978 
Ray  Eames 

United  States,  1912-1988 

Plywood  Stretcher,  1943 
Molded  plywood 
72 '/2  X  45  in.  (184.2  X  114.3  cm) 
Lucia  Eames 

Leg  Splint,  c.  1943 
Molded  plywood 
42  X  6  in.  (106.7  X  15.2  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Don  Menveg 

Leg  Splints  and  Packaging  Box,  c.  1943 
Molded  plywood  and  cardboard  box 
Each  splint:  42  x  6  in.  (106.7  x  15.2  cm) 
Courtesy  Andrew  H.  and  Lydia  Sussman 
p.  150 

fsw  (Folding  Screen  Wood),  1946 
Wood  and  canvas 

Screen  open:  67 '/z  x  60  in.  (171.5  x  152.4  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  the  Employees  of  Herman 
Miller,  Inc. 

icw  (Low  Chair  Wood),  c.  1946 
Molded  ash  plywood,  metal,  and  rubber 
shock  mounts 

26  Vi  X  21  y4  in.  (67.3  X  55.2  cm) 
Anonymous  lender 

Three  Plastic  Armchairs,  1950-53 

Plastic,  steel  base  (two  examples),  wood  base 

(one  example),  and  rubber  shock  mounts 

Each:  36  x  24  in.  (91.4  x  61  cm) 

Courtesy  Andrew  H.  and  Lydia  Sussman 

ETR  (Elliptical  Table,  Rod  Base),  1951 
Plywood,  plastic  laminate,  and  wire  base 
10  x  89 '4  in.  (25.4  X  226.7  cm) 
Mrs.  A.  Quincy  Jones 
p.  161 

Esu  (Eames  Storage  Unit),  1951-52 

Plywood,  metal,  and  particleboard 

30 '/4  X  77%  in.  (76.8  X  197.5  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Sid  Avery  and  James  Corcoran 

p.  163 

Wire  Mesh  Chair  with  Low  Wire  Base,  1951-53 

Wire 

24  X  18  in.  (61  X  45.7  cm) 

Courtesy  Andrew  H.  and  Lydia  Sussman 

p.  163 


La  Fonda  Chair,  c.  1963 

Aluminum,  plastic,  vinyl,  and  fiberglass 

24'/2  X  22  in.  (62.2  X  55.9  cm) 

lac:ma,  gift  of  the  Employees  of  1  lerman 

Miller,  Inc. 

Ray  Eames 

United  States,  1912-1988 

Sea  Things,  1945 

From  the  Stimulus  Collection,  produced 

by  Schiffer  Prints,  division  of  Mil-Art 

Company,  Inc.,  1949 

Cotton,  screenprinted  and  hand  printed 

53x49  in.  (134.6  X  124.5  cm) 

LACMA,  Curatorial  Special  Purpose  Fund 

John  Paul  Edwards 

United  States,  1884-1968 

William  Ritschel  Painting  by  the  Ocean,  c.  1920 

Bromoil  print 

iiVs  X  9  in.  (28.3  X  22.9  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift 

of  Mrs.  John  Paul  Edwards 

Craig  Ellwood 

United  States,  1922-1992 

Art  Center  College  of  Design,  Pasadena, 

Rendered  Perspective,  1974 

Drawing  by  Carlos  Diniz 

Ink  on  paper 

24 '/2  X  72  in.  (62.6  X  182.9  cm) 

Collection  of  Carlos  Diniz 

Charles  A.  Elsenius 

United  States,  1883-1963 

Woolenius  Tile  Company  (later  Elsenius 

Tile  and  Mantel  Company),  United  States, 

1927-39 

Tiles  with  Mayan  Motifs,  1927-39 

Earthenware 

5  X  9  in.  (12.7  X  22.9  cm);  8  x  8  in. 

(20.3  X  20.3  cm) 

Collection  of  Norman  Karlson 

Jules  Engel 

Hungary,  active  United  States,  b.  1915 

Brilliant  Moves,  1946 

Gouache  on  paper 

19  X  25  in.  (48.3  X63.5  cm) 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Albert  Kallis,  Los  Angeles 

MacDuff  Everton 

United  States,  b.  1937 

Golden  Gate  Bridge  from  Fort  Point,  c.  1990 
Chromogenic  development  print 
96  X  48  in.  (243.8  X  121.9  cm) 
LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 


Manny  Farber 

United  States,  b.  1917 

Roads  and  Trach,  1981 

Oil  on  board 

89  X  57  in.  (226.1  X  144.8  cm) 

Courtesy  Quint  Contemporary  Art 

Sohela  Farokhi 

Iran,  active  United  States,  b.  1956 
Lars  Lerup 

Sweden,  active  United  States,  b.  1940 

House  of  Flats,  Proposed  Site  in  San  Francisco, 

Working  Drawing  #2,  1989 

Mixed  media  on  Bristol  paper 

30^16  X  22%  in.  (76.7  X  57.5  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art, 

Visionary  San  Francisco  Commission 

Fred  Fehlau 

United  States,  b.  1958 

Between  a  Rock  and  a  Hard  Place 

(Inside/Outside),  1991 

Screenprint 

isVs  X  151/8  in.  (38.4  X  38.4  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Eileen  and  Peter  Norton 

Lorser  Feitelson 

United  States,  1898-1978 

Magical  Space  Forms,  No.  12, 1951 
Oil  on  Masonite 
30  X  40  in.  (76.2  X  101.6  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Mrs.  June  Wayne 

Margit  Fellegi 

Hungary,  active  United  States,  c.  1908-1975 
For  Cole  of  California,  United  States, 
founded  1923 

Woman's  Two-Piece  Bathing  Sidt, 

"Swoon  Suit,"  1942 

Acetate  satin 

Top  l:  42  in.  (106.7  cm);  Shorts  cb:  131/2  in. 

(34-3  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  the  artist 

Woman's  Bathing  Suit  and  Skirt,  c.  1944 

Glazed  cotton  chintz,  cotton,  and  elastic 

(Matletex) 

Bathing  suit  cb:  i5'/2  in.  (39.4  cm); 

Skirt  cb:  43  in.  (109.2  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  The  Fashion  Group,  Inc., 

of  Los  Angeles 

p.  158 

Woman's  Bathing  Suit  Dress,  1946 
Velvet  and  elastic  (Matletex) 
cb:  48  in.  (121.9  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  the  artist 


Arline  Fisch 

United  States,  b.  1931 

Halter  and  Skirt,  1968 
Sterling  silver  and  printed  velvet 
Halter:  22  x  11  in.  (55.9  x  27.9  cm); 
Skirt:  46  x  24  in.  (116.8  x  61  cm) 
American  Craft  Museum,  New  York 

Hal  Fischer 

United  States,  b.  1950 

Signifiers  for  a  Male  Response 

From  the  series  Gay  Semiotics,  1977 

Gelatin-silver  print 

iSVi  x  I2yi6  in.  (47  X  31.8  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art, 

gift  of  Richard  Lorenz 

Oskar  Fischinger 

Germany,  active  United  States,  1900-1967 

Abstraction,  1943 

Oil  on  panel 

18x22  in.  (45.7x55.9  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided  by  the 

Austin  and  Irene  Young  Trust  by  exchange 

Radio  Dynamics,  1943 

16  mm  film  (color,  with  sound,  twelve  minutes) 

Lent  by  Fischinger  Archive 

p.  190 

Frederick  Fisher 

United  States,  b.  1949 

Jorgensen  House  (Conceptual  Sketch), 

Los  Angeles,  1980 

Graphite,  metallic  powder,  and  oil  pastel  on 

paper 

31  X  23'/2  in.  (78.7  X  59.7  cm) 

Lent  by  Frederick  Fisher 

George  Fiske 

United  States,  1835-1918 

Dancing  on  the  Overhanging  Rock  at  Glacier 

Point,  5,200  ft.,  c.  1895-1905 

Albumen  print 

4'/2  X  7'/2  in.  (11.4  X  19.1  cm) 

Yosemitc  Museum,  National  Park  Service 

Judy  Fiskin 

United  States,  b.  1945 

Untitled  #195,  1982 

From  the  Dingbat  series,  1981-83 

Gelatin-silver  print 

2%  X2y4  in.  (7  X  7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  John  Rollins 

p.  244 


Untitled  #163, 1983 

From  the  Dingbat  series,  1981-83 

Gelatin-silver  print 

2%  X2%  in.  (7  x7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Merle  S.  Click 

Untitled  #199,  1983 

From  the  Dingbat  series,  1981-83 

Gelatin-silver  print 

23/4  X2y4  in.  (7  x7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Patricia  Faure 

Bob  Flanagan 

United  States,  1952-1996 
Sheree  Rose 

United  States,  b.  1945 

Leather  from  Home,  1983 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  eight  minutes) 

Lent  by  Sheree  Rose 

Bob  Flanagan 

United  States,  1952-1996 
Mike  Kelley 
United  States,  b.  1954 
Sheree  Rose 

United  States,  b.  1945 

100  Reasons,  1991 

Text  by  Mike  Kelley,  concept  by  Bob  Flanagan 

and  Sheree  Rose 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  six  minutes) 

Lent  by  Sheree  Rose 

Louis  Fleckenstein 

United  States,  1866-1942 

Rose  Dance  of  the  South,  c.  1916 
Gelatin-silver  bromide  print 
9V16X  6  V16  in.  (23.1  X  15.5  cm) 
Dennis  and  Amy  Reed  Collection 

Christine  Fletcher 

United  States,  1872-1961 

Fog  from  the  Pacific  (No.  4),  c.  1931 

Gelatin-silver  print 

131/2  X  loVs  in.  (34.3  X  25.7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Susan  and  G.  Ray  Hawkins 

p.  128 

Frank  Morley  Fletcher 

England,  active  United  States,  1866-1949 

California  2.  Mt.  Shasta,  c.  1930 

Color  woodcut 

11%  X  15%  in.  (29.6  X  40.3  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

Achenbach  Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts, 

Museum  Purchase 

p.  129 


Robbert  Flick 

1  lolland,  active  United  State 


b. 1939 


Along  Pico  Looking  North,  from  Appinn  Way, 

Santa  Monica,  to  Central  Avenue,  l.os  Angeles 

(Pico  H),  1998-99 

Silver  dye-bleach  (Cibachrome)  print 

38  X  48  in.  (96.5  X  121.9  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

p.  271 

Peter  Forakis 

United  States,  active  1950s 

Poster  for  the  6  Gallery,  Poetry  Reading, 

October  7,  jg^),  1955 

Color  screenprint 

21 '/i(.  X  I2'yi6  in.  (53.5  X  32.5  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

Achenbach  Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts,  Gift 

of  Jose  Ramon  Lerma  in  memory  of  Ruth  Wall 

Helen  Forbes 

United  States,  1891-1945 

Manley's  Beacon,  Death  Valley,  c.  1930 

Oil  on  canvas 

24  X  40  in.  (61  X  101.6  cm) 

The  National  Museum  of  Women  in  the  Arts, 

gift  of  Richard  York 

P- 123 

Myoshi,  c.  1935 

Oil  on  canvas 

26  X  22  in.  (66  X55.9  cm) 

LACMA,  promised  gift  of  Nancy  Dustin 

Wall  Moure 

Robert  F.  Foss 

United  States 

F.  H.  Lemon  Residence,  Pasadena,  East  Front 

Elevation,  1912 

Ink  on  linen 

16  'yi6  X  23^16  in.  (42.7  X  58.5  cm) 

Courtesy  The  Huntington  Library,  San  Marino, 

California 

Llyn  Foulkes 

United  States,  b.  1934 

Death  Valley,  U.S.A.,  1963 

Oil  on  canvas 

65 '/2  X  64%  in.  (166.4  X  164.5  cm) 

Betty  and  Monte  Factor  Collection, 

Santa  Monica,  California 


Sam  Francis 

United  States,  1923-1994 

SFP68-29, 1968 

Acrylic  on  canvas 

101  X  86  in.  (256.5  X  218.4  cm) 

lonathan  Novak,  Los  Angeles 

p.  213 


Robert  Frank 

Svvit/erland,  active  United  States,  b.  1924 

Covered  Car,  Long  Beach,  California,  1956 

Gelatin-silver  print 

11  X  13%  in.  (27.9  X  35.2  cm) 

The  Museum  of  Contemporary  Art, 

Los  Angeles,  The  Ralph  M.  Parsons 

Foundation  Photography  Collection 

p.  41 

Movie  Premiere,  Hollywood,  1956 

Gelatin-silver  print 

13%  X  11  in.  (35.2  X  27.9  cm) 

The  Museum  of  Contemporary  Art, 

Los  Angeles,  The  Ralph  M.  Parsons 

Foundation  Photography  Collection 

Television  Studio,  Burbank,  California,  195( 

Gelatin-silver  print 

II  X  13%  in.  (27.9  X  35.2  cm) 

The  Museum  of  Contemporary  Art, 

Los  Angeles,  The  Ralph  M.  Parsons 

Foundation  Photography  Collection 

p.  178 

Viola  Frey 

United  States,  b.  1933 

Lie  Man,  1983 

Ceramic,  glazed 

109  X  37  in.  (276.8  X  94  cm) 

Frederick  R.  Weisman  Art  Foundation, 

Los  Angeles 

p.  258 

Anthony  Friedkin 

United  States,  b.  1949 

Surfboard  in  the  Setting  Sun,  Santa  Mortice 

California,  1977 

From  the  Surfing  Essay 

Gelatin-silver  print 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  203 

Clockwork,  Malibu,  1978 
From  the  Surfing  Essay 
Gelatin-silver  print 
16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Lee  Friedlander 

United  States,  b.  1934 

Los  Angeles,  California,  1965 

Gelatin-silver  print 

11  X  14  in.  (27.9  X  35.6  cm) 

The  Museum  of  Contemporary  Art, 

Los  Angeles,  The  Ralph  M.  Parsons 

Foundation  Photography  Collection 

p.  198 


Larry  Fuente 

United  States,  b.  1947 

Derby  Racer  (completed  for  the  San  Francisco 

Museum  of  Modern  Art's  "Artist  Soap  Box 

Derby"  event),  1975 

Mixed  media  in  epoxy  on  fiberglass  Berkeley 

(car  model  c.  1962) 

43x151  in.  (109.2x377.5  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  205 

Kip  Fulbeck 

United  States,  b.  1965 

Banana  Split,  1991 
Videotape  (color,  with  sound, 
thirty-eight  minutes) 
Lent  by  Video  Data  Bank 

Coco  Fusco 

United  States,  b.  i960 
Paula  Heredia 

El  Salvador,  active  United  States,  b.  1957 

The  Couple  in  the  Cage:  Guatianaui 

Odyssey,  1993 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  thirty-one 

minutes) 

Lent  by  Video  Data  Bank 

James  Galanos 

United  States,  b.  1924 

Woman's  Coat,  1970 

Denim  and  sable  fur 

Coat  cb:  51  in.  (129.5  cm);  Belt  l:  38'/2  in. 

(97.8  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  the  artist 

John  Marshall  Gamble 

United  States,  1863-1957 

Breaking  Fog,  Hope  Ranch, 

Santa  Barbara,  c.  1908 

Oil  on  canvas 

24  X  34  in.  (61  X  86.4  cm) 

The  Fieldstone  Collection 

P-71 

Harry  Gamboa  Jr. 

United  States,  b.  1951 

The  Great  V/all  (of  East  LA.),  1978, 

printed  1999 

Gelatin-silver  print 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Patssi  Valdez,  1980, 1980,  printed  1999 

Gelatin-silver  print 

20  X  16  in.  ( 50.8  X  40.6  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 


1ST    OF    THE    E> 


Rupert  Garcia 

United  States,  b.  1941 

Ruben  Salazar  Memorial  Group  Show,  1970 

Color  screenprint 

26  X  20  in.  (66  X  50.8  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

Achenbach  Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts, 

gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robert  Marcus 

U.S.  Out  Now!,  1972 

Screenprint  on  orange  paper 

23 V4  X  17%  in.  (54.1  X  45.1  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

Achenbach  Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts, 

gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robert  Marcus 

William  Garnett 

United  States,  b.  1916 

Lakewood  Housing  Project,  1950 

Six  gelatin-silver  prints 

Each:  8  x  10  in.  (20.3  x  25.4  cm) 

Collection  of  Kathy  and  Ron  Perisho 

P-157 

Frances  Hammel  Gearhart 

United  States,  1869-1958 

Low  Tide,  c.  1910s 

Color  woodcut 

10 '/16  X  11 '/16  in.  (25.6  X  28  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

Achenbach  Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts, 

California  State  Library  Long-Term  Loan 

Autumn  Brocade  (Big  Bear  Lake),  c.  1920 

Color  woodcut 

12  X  9^16  in.  (30.5  X  23.7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Ellen  and  Max  Palevsky 

Sinererias,  c.  1920 

Color  woodcut 

10 '/2  X  11%  in.  (26.7  X  29.9  cm) 

Victoria  Dailey 

On  the  Salinas  River,  1920s 

Color  woodcut 

9V4  X  6%  in.  (23.5  X  16.9  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  the  Associate  Members 

of  the  Printmakers  Society  of  California 

p.  70 

May  Gearhart 

United  States,  1872-1951 

The  Rim  of  the  World,  c.  1910s 

Color  woodcut 

7'/i6  X  4'yi6  in.  (18  X  12.5  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

Achenbach  Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts, 

California  State  Library  Long-Term  Loan 


/un  Gee 

China,  active  United  States,  1906-1963 

Where  Is  My  Mother,  1926-27 

Oil  on  canvas 

20 '/s  X  16  in.  (51.1  X  40.6  cm) 

Collection  of  Li-lan 

p.  142 

Chinese  Musicians,  c.  1927 

Oil  on  paperboard 

19%  X  15  in.  (50.2  X  38.1  cm) 

Hirshhorn  Museum  and  Sculpture  Garden, 

Smithsonian  Institution,  gift  of  Joseph  H. 

Hirshhorn  Purchase  Fund,  1972 

Frank  Gehry 

Canada,  active  United  States,  b.  1929 

The  Bubbles  Lounge  Chair,  1987 

Corrugated  cardboard,  birch,  and  metal 

interior  supports 

30  X  81  in.  (76.2  X  205.7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Robert  H.  Halff 

Drawings  of  the  Walt  Disney  Concert  Hall, 
Los  Angeles,  1991 
Ink  on  paper 

9  X  12  in.  (22.7  X  30.5  cm) 
Frank  O.  Gehry  &  Associates 
p.  42 

Arnold  Genthe 

Germany,  active  United  States,  1869-1942 

Chinese  Family,  1897 
Gelatin-silver  print 
9 '4  X  12  in.  (23.5  X  30.5  cm) 
Collection  of  Mrs.  Nancy  Dubois 

Chinatown,  San  Francisco  [Corner  of  DuPont 

and  Jackson] ,  1898 

Gelatin-silver  print 

9'/2  X  13 "/le  in.  (24.1  X  35.1  cm) 

Collection  of  Mrs.  Nancy  Dubois 

P-55 

On  DuPont  Street,  1898 
Gelatin-silver  print 
8%  X  12%  in.  (22.5  X  32.7  cm) 
Collection  of  Mrs.  Nancy  Dubois 

The  Opium  Fiend,  1905 
Gelatin-silver  print 

10  X  i2V'8  in.  (25.4  X  30.8  cm) 

The  J.  Paul  Getty  Museum,  Los  Angeles 
P-95 

Rudi  Gernreich 

Austria,  active  United  States,  1922-1985 

Woman's  Bathing  Suit,  1952 
Wool  knit 
cb:  23  in.  (58.4  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Walter  Bass 
p.  176 


"Topless"  Bathing  Suit,  1964 
Wool  knit 
cb:  15  in.  (38  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  the  artist 
p.  219 

Bathing  Suit  and  Hip  Boots,  Matchmg  Belt, 

and  Sun  Visor,  1965 

Hip  boots  by  Capezio 

Sun  visor  (reproduction)  by  Layne  Nielson 

(United  States,  b.  1938) 

Wool  knit  bathing  suit,  vinyl  belt,  and 

vinyl  boots 

cb:  7'/4  in.  (18.4  cm);  Belt:  37  x  %  in. 

(94  X  2.2  cm);  Boots:  32  x  io'/4  x  3  in. 

(81.3  X  26x7.6  cm) 

Gift  of  Rudi  Gernreich,  Museum  Collection, 

The  Fashion  Institute  of  Design  & 

Merchandising 

Unisex  Caftan,  1970 

Printed  silk 

cb:  711/2  in.  (181.6  cm) 

Gift  of  Rudi  Gernreich,  Museum  Collection, 

The  Fashion  Institute  of  Design  & 

Merchandising 

p.  219 

Selden  Conner  Gile 

United  States,  1877-1947 

The  Soil,  1927 

Oil  on  canvas 

30  X  36  in.  (76.2  X  91.4  cm) 

Private  collection 

p.  117 

Boat  and  Yellow  Hills,  n.d. 

Oil  on  canvas 

301/2  X  36  in.  (77.5  X  91.4  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift 

of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Frederick  Novy  Ir. 

p.  74 

IrvingJ.  Gill 

United  States,  1870-1936 

Nelson  E.  Barker  Residence,  San  Diego, 

Perspective  Elevation,  1911-12 

Graphite,  colored  pencil,  and  gouache  on  paper 

12  X  18  in.  (30.5  X  45.7  cm) 

Architecture  and  Design  Collection,  University 

Art  Museum,  ucsb 

Gladding  McBean  Pottery 

United  States,  1923-79 

Encanto  Chinese  Red  Vase,  c.  1930 

Ceramic 

h:  7%  in.  (19.7  cm);  d:  5  in.  (12.7  cm) 

Ron  and  Susan  Vander  Molen 

P-135 


Pair  of  Matching  Garden  Vases  in  Blue 

Crystalline  Glaze,  c.  1930 

Ceramic 

Each:  h:  26  in.  (66  cm);  d:  14  in.  (35.6  cm) 

Ron  and  Susan  Vander  Moien 

W.  Edwin  Gledhill 

Canada,  active  United  States,  1888-1976 

Santa  Barbara  Mission,  c.  1920 

Gelatin-silver  print 

ii'/4  X  8'/2  in.  (28.6  X  21.6  cm) 

Santa  Barbara  Museum  of  Art,  gift 

of  Keith  Gledhill 

p.  92 

Peter  Coin 

United  States,  b.  1951 

Impenetrable  Border,  1987 

Gelatin-silver  print 

11  X14  in.  (27.9  X35.6  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  The 

Shirley  Burden  Fund  for  Photography 

p.  266 

Jim  Goldberg 

United  States,  b.  1953 

Russian  Roulette,  Breeze,  Stratford  Hotel, 

S.F.,  1987 

From  the  series  Raised  by  Wolves,  1985-95 

Gelatin-silver  print 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Hollywood  Blvd.,  3  a.m.,  1988 

From  the  series  Raised  by  Wolves,  1985-95 

Gelatin-silver  print 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Ken  Gonzales-Day 

United  States,  b.  1964 

Untitled  #63, 1998 

From  the  series  The  Bone-Grass  Boy:  Secret 

Banks  of  the  Conejos  River,  1995-99 

Chromogenic  development  (Ektacolor)  print 

8  X  10  in.  (20.3  X  25.4  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Michael  Gonzalez 

United  States,  b.  1953 

Comp.  w/Y,  B,  and  R  #1^,  1994 
Plastic  bags,  acrylic,  and  fasteners 

17  X  14  X  i'/2  in.  (43.2  X  35.6  X  3.8  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Eileen  and  Peter  Norton, 
Santa  Monica 


Joe  Goode 

United  States,  b.  1937 

House  Drawing  (aHOUSEdi),  1963 

Pencil  on  tracing  paper 

26  X  21  ¥4  in.  (66  X  55.3  cm) 

The  Museum  of  Contemporary  Art, 

Los  Angeles,  purchased  with  funds  provided 

by  Ruth  and  Murray  Gribin 

Untitled  (Torn  Sky),  1971-76 
Oil  on  canvas 

60  X  6o'/2  in.  (152.4  X  153.7  cm) 
Collection  of  Hiromi  Katayama 
p.  212 

Robert  Groham 

United  States,  b.  1938 

Use  I,  1977 

Bronze 

h:  28  in.  (71.1  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  matching  funds 

provided  by  the  National  Endowment  for  the 

Arts  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morley  Benjamin 

Grand  Feu  Art  Pottery 

United  States,  c.  1913-16 

Vase,  c.  1913-16 

Stoneware 

h:  loVs  in.  (27  cm);  d:  4^/8  in.  (11.7  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided  by 

the  William  Randolph  Hearst  Collection  and 

the  Los  Angeles  County 

Vase,  c.  1913-16 

Stoneware 

h:  iiVs  in.  (28.3  cm);  d:  4V'8  in.  (10.5  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Max  Palevsky 

Vase,  c.  1913-16 

Stoneware 

h:  lo'/s  in.  (25.7  cm);  d:  8Vs  in.  (20.6  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Max  Palevsky 

Todd  Gray 

United  States,  b.  1954 

Goofy  (Body)  #6, 1993 

Hand-varnished  gelatin-silver  print,  installed 

with  metal  bands,  edition  3  /4 

81  X  50  in.  (205.7  X  127  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Richard  and  Diane  Dunn 

p.  248 

Phyllis  Green 

United  States,  b.  1950 

Spark:  Green  Stockings,  1994 
Mixed  media 

19 '/2  X  9  in.  (49.5  X  22.9  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 


Charles  Sumner  Greene 

United  States,  1868-1957 
Henry  Mather  Greene 

United  States,  1870-1954 

Greene  and  Greene,  United  States,  1893-1922 

Lantern  from  the  Henry  M.  Robinson  House, 

Pasadena,  1906 

Steel  and  slag  glass 

24 '/4  X  3244  in.  (61.5  X  83.2  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Max  Palevsky 

Robert  R.  Blacker  House,  Pasadena,  South 

Elevation,  Drawing  #6, 1907 

Black  ink  on  linen 

141/8  X  36  in.  (35.9  X  91.4  cm) 

Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library, 

Columbia  University,  New  York 

pp.  88-89 

Bedroom  Cabinet  from  the  Robert  R.  Blacker 

House,  Pasadena,  1907 

Mahogany,  ebony,  oak,  boxwood,  copper, 

silver-plated  steel,  and  abalone 

24  X  20  in.  (61  X  50.8  cm) 

LACMA,  Museum  Acquisition  Fund 

p.  89 

Bedroom  Rocking  Chair  from  the  Robert  R. 
Blacker  House,  Pasadena,  1907 
Mahogany,  ebony,  oak,  boxwood,  copper,  silver- 
plated  steel,  abalone,  and  cotton  upholstery 
37%  X  25%  in.  (95.6  X  65.7  cm) 
LACMA,  Museum  Acquisition  Fund 
p.  89 

Living  Room  Ceiling  Fixture  from  the  Freeman 
A.  Ford  House,  Pasadena,  1907 
Mahogany,  ebony,  leaded  glass,  and  iron 
12  X  45'/4  in.  (30.5  X  114.9  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Max  Palevsky 

Dining  Table  from  the  WiUiam  R.  Thorsen 

House,  Berkeley,  1908-9 

Honduran  mahogany  and  ebony  with 

fruitwood,  oak,  and  abalone  inlays 

Without  leaves:  29%  x  67'/4  in.  (74.3  x  170.2  cm) 

The  Gamble  House,  use,  anonymous  bequest 

Sideboard  from  the  WilUam  R.  Thorsen  House, 

Berkeley,  1908-9 

Honduran  mahogany  and  ebony  with 

fruitwood,  oak,  and  abalone  inlays 

36 '/2  X  79 1/4  in.  (92.7X  201.3  cm) 

The  Gamble  House,  use,  anonymous  bequest 

Two  Host  Chairs  and  Two  Side  Chairs  from  the 
William  R.  Thorsen  House,  Berkeley,  1908-9 
Honduran  mahogany  and  ebony  with  fruit- 
wood, oak,  and  abalone  inlays;  leather  seats; 
and  brass  pins 

Host:  43  X  25  in.  (109.2  x  63.5  cm);  Side:  42 '4  x 
21  in.  (107.3x53.3  cm) 
The  Gamble  House,  use,  anonymous  bequest 


Bookcase  from  the  Cordelia  A.  Culbertson 

House,  Pasadena,  c.  1911 

Mahogany,  ebony,  and  glass 

82  X  54  in.  {208.3  X  137.2  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Linda  and  James  Ries  in 

memory  of  Dorothy  and  Harold  Shrier 

Greta  Grossman 

Sweden,  active  United  States,  c.  1920S-1999 

Black  Gooseneck  Desk  Lamp,  c.  1950 

Painted  metal  and  plated  steel 

Lamp  h:  13  in.  (33  cm);  Shade  d:  11  in. 

(27.9  cm) 

Courtesy  Fat  Chance,  Los  Angeles,  California 

Raul  Guerrero 

United  States,  b.  1945 

Untitled,  1974 

Screenprint 

21  "/16  X  21%  in.  (55.1  X  54.9  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided  by 

the  Director's  Roundtable,  and  gift  of  Cirrus 

Editions 

John  Gutmann 

Germany,  active  United  States,  1905-1998 

The  Cry,  1939 

Gelatin-silver  print 

9%  X  jVi  in.  (24.8  X  19.7  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

p.  114 

Otto  Hagel 

Germany,  active  United  States,  1909-1973 

Labor  Workers,  c.  1935 
Gelatin-silver  print 
14  X  11  in.  (35.6  X  27.9  cm) 
Collection  of  Stephen  White  II 

Untitled  [Maritime  Workers  Looking  for  Work], 

c.  1935 

Gelatin-silver  print 

14  X  11  in.  (35.6  X  27.9  cm) 

Collection  of  Stephen  White  II 

p.  115 

John  Charles  Haley 

United  States,  1905-1991 

Berkeley  Street  Scene,  c.  1931 
Gouache  on  paper 
9  X  12  in.  (22.9  X30.5  cm) 
The  E.  Gene  Grain  Collection 

Doug  Hall 

United  States,  b.  1944 

Storm  and  Stress,  1986 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  forty-eight 

minutes) 

Lent  by  Video  Data  Bank 


Philippe  Halsman 

United  States,  1906-1979 

Dorothy  Dandridge,  1953 
Gelatin-silver  print 
io'/4  X  7V4  in.  (26  X  18.4  cm) 
Collection  of  Louis  R  D'Elia 
P- 177 

David  Hammons 

United  States,  b.  1943 

Injustice  Case,  1970 

Body  print  (margarine  and  powdered 

pigments)  and  American  flag 

63  X  40'/!  in.  (160  X  102.9  cm) 

LACMA,  Museum  Acquisition  Fund 

p.  223 

James  Hansen 

United  States,  1917-1993 

Beach  Scene  at  Santa  Monica  in  1949, 1949 
Watercolor  on  paper 
i8'/4  X  13  in.  (46.4  X  33  cm) 
Automobile  Club  of  Southern  California 
p.  158 

Harwell  H.  Harris 

United  States,  1903-1990 

Grandview  Gardens,  Chinatown, 

Los  Angeles,  1940 

Colored  pencU  on  paper 

I3y4  X  2iy4  in.  (34.9  X  55.2  cm) 

The  Harwell  Hamilton  Harris  Papers,  The 

Alexander  Architectural  Archive,  The  General 

Libraries,  The  University  of  Texas  at  Austin 

Weston  tiavens  House,  Berkeley,  Exterior 

Perspective,  1940 

Colored  pencil  on  paper 

8  x  ii'/2  in.  (20.3  X  29.2  cm) 

The  Harwell  Hamilton  Harris  Papers,  The 

Alexander  Architectural  Archive,  The  General 

Libraries,  The  University  of  Texas  at  Austin 

Helen  Mayer  Harrison 

United  States,  b.  1929 
Newton  Harrison 

United  States,  b.  1932 

Meditation  I  from  Meditations  on  the  Condition 

of  the  Sacramento  River,  the  Delta,  and  the  Bays 

of  San  Francisco,  1977 

Satellite  photographic  map  with  oil  paint  and 

handwritten  text  mounted  on  canvas  with  ten 

accompanying  posters,  ink  on  paper 

Map:  90  x  76  in.  (228.6  x  193  cm);  Each 

poster:  17  x  11  in.  (43.2  x  27.9  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artists 

P-197 


Robert  Harshe 

United  States,  1879-1938 

Sunrise  over  Skyline  (Near  Portola),  1910 

Oil  on  canvas 

Each  one  of  three  sections:  i4'/4  x  2o'/4  in. 

(36.2  X  51.4  cm) 

The  Oakmont  Corporation 

Ernest  Haskell 

United  States,  1876-1925 

Fallen  Centuries,  c.  1920 

Drypoint 

io'/4  X  i5'/4  in.  (26.1  X  38.7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Hildegard  Heartt  Haskell, 

oldest  daughter  of  Ernest  Haskell 

Childe  Hassam 

United  States,  1859-1935 

California  Oil  Fields,  1927 

Etching 

8%  X  13%  in.  (22.5  X  35.2  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art, 

gift  of  Mrs.  Childe  Hassam 

p.  106 

Tim  Hawkinson 

United  States,  b.  1961 
Issey  Miyake 

Japan,  b.  1938 

Dress 

From  Pleats  Please,  Guest  Artist  Series 

No.  3, 1998 

Polyester 

cb:  52'/2  in.  (133.4  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Dale  Carolyn  Gluckman 

Jumpsuit 

From  Pleats  Please,  Guest  Artist  Series 

No.  3, 1998 

Polyester 

cb:  57  in.  (144-8  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Dale  Carolyn  Gluckman 

p.  251 

Miki  Hayakawa 

lapan,  active  United  States,  1904-1953 

Telegraph  Hill,  n.d. 

Oil  on  canvas 

29  X  34  in.  ( 73.7  X  86.4  cm) 

Perlmutter  Fine  Arts,  San  Francisco 

p.  104 

Edith  Heath 

United  States,  b.  1911 

Heath  Ceramics,  United  States,  founded  c 

Pitcher,  c.  1948,  manufactured  1950s 
Stoneware,  glazed 
h:  8  in.  (20.3  cm);  d:  6  in.  (15.2  cm) 
Collection  of  Cathy  Callahan 


Set  of  Tumblers,  c.  1948,  manufactured  1950s 
Stoneware,  glazed 

Each:  h:  2%  in.  (7.3  cm);  d:  3%  in.  (9.5  cm) 
Collection  of  Cathy  Callahan 

Ana  Lisa  Hedstrom 

United  States,  b.  1943 

Video  Weave  Kimono,  1982 
Silk  crepe  de  chine,  resist  dyed 
cb:  511/2  in.  (130.8  cm) 
Collection  of  Laura  Fisher 
p.  260 

Robert  Heinecken 

United  States,  b.  1931 

T.V.  Dinner/After,  \97i 

Emulsion  on  formed  canvas,  chalk,  and  resin, 

edition  8/11 

12  X  15  X  1  in.  (30.5  X  38.1  X  2.5  cm) 

Collection  of  Joyce  Neimanas 

Robert  Henri 

United  States,  1865-1929 

Tam  Can,  1914 

Oil  on  canvas 

24  X  20  in.  (61  X  50.8  cm) 

Albright-Knox  Art  Gallery,  Buffalo,  New  York, 

Sarah  A.  Getes  Fund,  1915 

p.  96 

George  Herms 

United  States,  b.  1935 

Everything  Is  O.K.,  1966 

Wood,  metal,  plaster,  and  Plexiglas 

h:  4  in.  (10.2  cm);  d:  1344  in.  (34.9  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Drs.  Katherina  and 

Judd  Marmor 

p.  214 

Bomb  Scare  Box,  1970 
Wood,  paper,  found  objects,  and  paint 
6'yi6  X  31 '5/16  X  3V8  in.  (17.7  X  81.2  X  7.9  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Barry  Lowen 

Anthony  Hernandez 

United  States,  b.  1947 

#24,  1989 

From  the  series  Landscapes  for  the  Fiomeless, 

1988-91 

Silver  dye-bleach  (Cibachrome)  print 

48  X  58  in.  (121.9  X  147.3  cm) 

Collection  of  Creative  Artists  Agency 

p.  236 

#18, 1990 

From  the  series  Landscapes  for  the  Homeless, 

1988-91 

Silver  dye-bleach  (Cibachrome)  print 

34  X  65  in.  (86.4  X  165.1  cm) 

Collection  of  Jeffrey  Leifer 


Ester  Hernandez 

L'nited  States,  b.  1944 

Sun  Mad,  1982 
Screenprint 

22  X  17  in.  (55.9  X  43.2  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

P-197 

Lynn  Hershman 

United  States,  b.  1941 

Roberta  Breitmore's  Construction  Chart,  1973 
Chromogenic  development  print 
30  X  40  in.  (76.2  X  101.6  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 
p.  232 

Hisako  Hibi 

Japan,  active  United  States,  1907-1991 

We  Had  to  Fetch  Coal  for  the  Pot-Belly  Stove, 

Topaz,  Utah,  1944 

Oil  on  canvas 

20  X  24  in.  ( 50.8  X  61  cm. ) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

gift  of  Ibuki  Hibi  Lee 

P-155 

Matsusaburo  (George)  Hibi 

lapan,  active  United  States,  1886-1947 

Block  #9,  Topaz,  1945 
Oil  on  canvas 

23  X  26  in.  (58.4  X  66  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 
gift  of  Ibuki  Hibi  Lee 

Elizabeth  Hickox 

United  States,  1873-1947 

Lidded  Trinket  Basket  with  Design,  1900-1930 

Twined  maidenhair  fern  and  myrtle  shoots 

11 '/2  X  8'/2  in.  (29.2  X  21.6  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles, 

gift  of  Mrs.  Caroline  Boeing  Poole 

p.  94 

Charles  Christopher  Hill 

United  States,  b.  1948 

Cuando  vayas  a  cagar. . . ,  1974 

Screenprint 

23%  X  30 '/4  in.  (60.6  X  76.8  cm) 

LACMA,  Cirrus  Editions  Archive,  purchased 

with  funds  provided  by  the  Ducommun  and 

Gross  Endowment  Income  Fund,  and  gift 

of  Cirrus  Editions 


Louis  Hock 

United  States,  b.  194H 

The  Mexican  Tapes:  A  Chronicle  of  Life  Outside 
the  Law,  1986 

Videotape  series  (color,  with  sound,  four  sixty- 
minute  programs) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

David  Hockney 

England,  active  United  States,  b.  1937 

The  Splash,  1966 

Acrylic  on  canvas 

72x72  in.  (183  x  183  cm) 

Collection  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Norman  Pattiz 

p.  201 

The  Merced  River,  Yosemite  Valley,  California, 

September  1982, 1982 

PhotocoUage  (chromogenic  development  prints) 

52  x  61  in.  (132.1  X  154.9  cm) 

Collection  of  Pico  Holdings,  Inc. 

P-234 

Margaret  Honda 

United  States,  b.  1961 

Perennial,  1996 

Fresh  chrysanthemums,  stainless  steel, 

and  water 

h:  %  in.  (2.22  cm);  d:  42  in.  (106.7  cm) 

Courtesy  the  artist  and  Shoshana  Wayne 

Gallery 

p.  238 

Dennis  Hopper 

United  States,  b.  1936 

Double  Standard,  1961,  printed  later 
Gelatin-silver  print,  edition  13/15 
16x24  in.  (40.6  X  61  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Bob  Crewe 
p.  206 

Donal  Hord 

United  States,  1902-1966 

Mayan  Mask,  1933 
Polychromed  and  gilded  mahogany 
141/4  X  10  X  8'/2  in.  (36.2  X  25.4  X  21.6  cm) 
Steve  Turner  Gallery,  Beverly  Hills 
p.  136 

George  Hoshida 

Japan,  active  United  States,  1907-1985 

Two  Drawings  from  "American  World  War  II 
Concentration  Camp  Sketches,"  1942-42, 
Ink  and  watercolor  on  paper 
Each:  9'/2  x  6  in.  (24.1  x  15.2  cm) 
Japanese  American  National  Museum,  gift 
of  June  Hoshida  Honma,  Sandra  Hoshida, 
and  Carole  Hoshida  Kanada 


John  Langley  Howard 

United  States,  b.  1902 

The  Unemployed,  1937 

Oil  on  cardboard 

24  X  30  Vi  in.  (61  X  76.8  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California, 

gift  of  Anne  and  Stephen  Walrod 

p.  114 

Mildred  Howard 

United  States,  b.  1945 

Black  Don't  Crack,  1997 

Mixed-media  assemblage 

18  X  23  X  10  in.  (45.7  X  58.4  X  25.4  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Gallery 

Paule  Anglim 

p.  264 

Robert  Hudson 

United  States,  b.  1938 

Running  through  the  Woods,  1975 

Stuffed  deer,  wood,  rock,  globe,  metal,  string, 

feathers,  found  objects,  and  acrylic 

77  X  62  X  50%  in.  (195.6  X  157.5  X  128.9  cm) 

Lent  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  C.  David  Robinson, 

Sausalito,  California 

Leopold  Hugo 

United  States,  1863-1933 

Untitled,  c.  1920 

Gum  bichromate  print 

13%  X  10%  in.  (35.3  X  27.8  cm) 

The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 

p.  71 

John  Humble 

United  States,  b.  1944 

Selma  Avenue  at  Vine  Street,  Hollywood, 
January  23,  1991, 1991,  printed  1995 
Chromogenic  development  print,  edition  1/15 
38'/2  X  30  in.  (97.8  X  76.2  cm) 
LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 
p.  250 

George  Hurrell 

United  States,  1904-1992 

Norma  Shearer,  1929 
Gelatin-silver  print 
13  xio  in.  (33  X  25.4  cm) 
Collection  of  Louis  F.  D'Elia 
p.  130 

Ramon  Novarro,  1930 
Gelatin-silver  print 
ii'4  x7'/4  in.  (28.6  X  18.4  cm) 
Collection  of  Louis  F.  D'Elia 
p.  130 


William  Haines,  1930 
Gelatin-silver  print 
i3'/4  X  7'/4  in.  (33.7  X  18.4  cm) 
Collection  of  Louis  R  D'Elia 

Joan  Crawford,  1932 
Gelatin-silver  print 
i2'/4  X  7'/4  in.  (31.1  X  18.4  cm) 
Collection  of  Louis  R  D'Elia 
p.  131 

Jean  Harlow,  1933 
Gelatin-silver  print 
12 '/4  X  7'/4  in.  (31.1  X  18.4  cm) 
Collection  of  Louis  R  D'Elia 

Ann  Sheridan,  c.  1945 
Gelatin-silver  print 
13 '/2  X  10 '/4  in.  (34.4  X  26  cm) 
Collection  of  Louis  F.  D'Elia 

Jane  Russell,  1946 

From  the  portfolio  Hurrell  H,  1980-81 

Gelatin-silver  print,  edition  95/250 

15  X  19^16  in.  (38.1  X  49  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  the  Hollywood  Photographers 

Archive 

p- 177 

Randy  Hussong 

United  States,  b.  1955 

It's  My  Party,  1993 

Vinyl  on  metal 

47  X  25  X  4  in.  (119.4  X  63.5  X  10.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Gallery  Paule 

Anglim 

Helen  Hyde 

United  States,  1868-1919 

Imps  of  Chinatown,  1910s 

Etching  with  hand  coloring 

7%6  X  6  in.  (19  X  15.2  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

Achenbach  Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts, 

Museum  Collection 

p.  96 

Robert  Wilson  Hyde 

United  States,  1875-1951 

A  House  Book,  1906 
Suede  and  brass  cover,  suede  flyleaves, 
parchment,  wove  rag  paper,  and  ink 
ii'/2  X  8%  X  I'/s  in.  (29.2  X  22.2  X  3.5  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Max  Palevsky  in  honor 
of  the  museum's  twenty-fifth  anniversary 
p.  87 

Alex  Ignatieff 

Active  United  States,  1932 

Angel's  Flight,  c.  1932 
Watercolor  on  paper 
21  x27'/2  in.  (53.3  X  69.9  cm) 
The  Fieldstone  Collection 


George  Inness 

United  States,  1825-1894 

California,  1891,  later  dated  1894 

Oil  on  canvas 

60  X  48  in.  (152.4  X  121.9  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift  of 

the  estate  of  Helen  Hathaway  White  and  the 

Women's  Board  of  the  Oakland  Museum 

Association 

David  Ireland 

United  States,  b.  1930 

500  Capp  Street,  1975-2000 

Videotape  documentation  (color,  with  sound, 

six  minutes)  of  the  ongoing  installation  work, 

which  is  the  artist's  home 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Robert  Irwin 

United  States,  b.  1928 

Untitled,  1968 

Acrylic 

d:  60  in.  (152.4  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  the  Kleiner  Foundation 

p.  211 

Frank  Israel 

United  States,  1945-1996 

Drager  Residence,  Berkeley,  Roof  Plan,  1993 
Conte  crayon  on  tracing  paper 
40  X  27V2  in.  (101.6  X  69.9  cm) 
Dr.  Sharon  B.  Drager 

Shinsaku  Izumi 

Japan,  active  United  States,  1880-1941 

Tunnel  of  Night,  c.  1931 
Gelatin-silver  print 
135/16  X  10%  in.  (33.8  X  27  cm) 
LACMA,  Los  Angeles  County  Fund 
p.  106 

Everett  Gee  Jackson 

United  States,  1900-1995 

Tehuantepec  Women,  1927 

Oil  on  canvas 

32  X  32  in.  (81.3  X  81.3  cm) 

Steve  Turner  and  Victoria  Dailey 

Feme  Jacobs 

United  States,  b.  1942 

Container  for  a  Wind,  1974-75 

Coiled  and  waxed  linen 

44  X  11  X  4  in.  (111.8  X  27.9  X  10.2  cm) 

Palm  Beach  histitute  of  Contemporary  Art 

Veil,  1996 

Coiled  and  twined  waxed  linen 

87y4  X  7  X  4  in.  (222.9  X  17.8  x  10.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 


Jon  Adams  Jerde 

United  States,  b.  1940 

UiiivciMl  CityWalk,  Universal  Cily,  1993 
Mixed  media  on  paper 

12  X  68  in.  (30.5  X  172.7  cm) 

The  Jerde  Partnership  International 

Jess  [Burgess  Collins] 

United  States,  b.  1923 

Robert  Duncan,  Poet,  c.  1952 

Black  chalk  on  paper 

io'yi6  X  8V2  in.  (27.8  X  21.5  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

Achenbach  Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts, 

gift  of  Julian  Silva 

Tricky  Cad:  Case  V,  [1958I 
Colored  newspaper,  clear  plastic  wrap, 
and  black  tape  on  paperboard 
13V4  X  24 '5/16  in.  (33.7  X  63.4  cm) 
Hirshhorn  Museum  and  Sculpture  Garden, 
Smithsonian  Institution,  Joseph  H.  Hirshhorn 
Purchase  Fund,  1989 
p.  180 

DeDe Johnson 

United  States,  b.  circa  1914 

Woman's  Three-Piece  Playsiiit,  late  1950s 

Printed  cotton 

Blouse  cb:  16 1/2  in.  (41.9  cm);  Skirt  cb:  31 V2  in. 

(80  cm);  Shorts  cb:  16  in.  (40.6  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Esther  Ginsberg  and  James 

Morris  in  memory  of  Don  Morris 

p.  158 

Sargent  Johnson 

United  States,  1888-1967 

Elizabeth  Gee,  1925 

Stoneware,  glazed 

i3'/8  X  ioy4  X  7'/2  in.  (33.3  x  27.3  x  19.1  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art,  Albert 

M.  Bender  Collection,  gift  of  Albert  M.  Bender 

p.  143 

A.  Quincy  Jones 

United  States,  1913-1979 

Smalley  Residence,  Los  Angeles,  Perspective, 

Looking  North,  1970 

Drawing  by  Donald  C.  Picken 

Ink  on  Mylar 

30  x  42  in.  (76.2  X  106.7  cm) 

Courtesy  A.  Quincy  Jones  Architecture  Archive 

Pirkle  Jones 

United  States,  b.  1914 

Grape  Picker,  Berryessa  Valley,  California,  1956 
Gelatin-silver  print 

13  X  10 V2  in.  (33  X  26.3  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Mark  Story 


Window  of  the  Black  Panther  Party  National 

Headquarters,  1968 

Gelatin-silver  print 

14  X  11  in.  (35.6  X  27.9  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  221 

Frida  Kahio 

Mexico,  active  United  States  and  Mexico, 
1907-1954 

Frida  and  Diego  Rivera,  1931 

Oil  on  canvas 

39%  X  31  in.  (100  x  78.7  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art,  Albert 

M.  Bender  Collection,  gift  of  Albert  M.  Bender 

p.  138 

Arthur  Kales 

United  States,  1882-1936 

The  Sun  Dance,  c.  1920 

Gelatin-silver  print 

10 '/2  X  13 Vs  in.  (26.7  X  34  cm) 

The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 

p.  84 

The  White  Peacock,  Gloria  Swanson,  c.  1920 

Gelatin-silver  print 

loVs  X  I3y8  in.  (26.5  X  34  cm) 

The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 

Matsumi  Kanemitsu 

Japan,  active  United  States,  1922-1992 

Zen  Blue,  1961 

Lithograph 

30x22  in.  (76.2x55.9  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  the  Michael  and  Dorothy 

Blankfort  Tamarind  Collection  through 

the  Contemporary  Art  Council 

p.  186 

Ray  Kappe 

United  States,  b.  1927 

Kappe  Residence,  Pacific  Palisades,  Section 

Perspective,  1965 

Graphite  on  paper 

30  X  42  in.  (76.2  X  106.7  cm) 

Kappe  Architects/ Planners 

Allan  Kaprow 

United  States,  b.  1927 

Fluids,  1967 

Photo  documentation  of  event  in  Los  Angeles, 
California,  photographs  by  Dennis  Hopper, 
transferred  to  videotape  for  this  exhibition 
Lent  by  Dennis  Hopper 


Taizo  Koto 

Japan,  active  United  States,  1888-1924 

Untitled  jNature  Studyj,  c.  1923 
Gum  bichromate  print 

4'/2  x  6'/i  in.  (11.4  X  16.5  cm) 
Collectu)n  of  Stephen  White  II 

Craig  Kauffman 

United  States,  b.  1932 

Untitled  Wall  Relief  1967 
Acrylic  lacquer  on  vacuum-formed  Plexiglas 
52'/2  X  78 '/4  X  12  in.  (133.4  X  198.8  x  30.5  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  the  Kleiner  Foundation 
p.  208 

Hiija  Keading 

United  States,  b.  i960 

Oh  Happy  Day,  1996 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  four  minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Kirby  Kean 

United  States,  1908-1999 

Night  Scene  near  Victorville,  c.  1937 

Gelatin-silver  print 

13^16  X  10^16  in.  (33.5  x  25.9  cm) 

The  J.  Paul  Getty  Museum,  Los  Angeles 

p.  122 

William  Keith 

Scotland,  active  United  States,  1838-1911 

Looking  across  the  Golden  Gate  from 

Mount  Tamalpais,  c.  1895 

Oil  on  canvas 

40  X  50^/8  in.  (101.6  X  128.6  cm) 

Private  collection 

P-74 

Mike  Kelley 

United  States,  b.  1954 

Frankenstein,  1989 

Found  stuffed  animals  and  basket 

12V2  X  78  X  28  in.  (31.8  X  198.1  X  71.1  cm) 

Judy  and  Stuart  Spence 

P-257 

Rockwell  Kent 

United  States,  1882-1971 

Coffeepot  from  "Our  America,"  1939 

Manufactured  by  Vernon  Kilns  (United  States, 

1931-58) 

Earthenware 

h:  8  in.  (20.3  cm);  d:  8^/2  in.  (21.6  cm) 

Museum  of  California  Design,  Bill  Stern 

Bequest 


Martin  Kersels 

United  States,  b.  i960 

MacArthur  Park,  1996 

Painted  wood,  speaker,  cd  player,  stereo 

receiver,  and  cd 

At  rest:  62  x  32  x  24  in.  (157.5  x  81.3  x  61  cm) 

Collection  of  Dean  Valentine  and  Amy 

Adelson,  Los  Angeles 

Sant  Khalsa 

United  States,  b.  1953 

Seven  Oaks  Dam  Site,  1992 

From  Crossroads:  The  Santa  Ana  River 

Project 

Gelatin-silver  print 

13V2  X  8V2  in.  (34.3  X  21.6  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Edward  Kienholz 

United  States,  1927-1994 

Illegal  Operation,  1962 

Mixed  media 

59  X  48  X  54  in.  (149-9  x  121.9  x  137.2  cm) 

Betty  and  Monte  Factor  Collection, 

Santa  Monica,  California 

Back  Seat  Dodge  '38,  1964 

Mixed  media 

66  X  120  x  156  in.  (167.6  x  304.8  x  396.2  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided 

by  the  Art  Museum  Council 

p.  207 

Intae  Kim 

Korea,  active  United  States,  b.  1947 

Death  Valley,  Sunrise,  Sand  Dune,  1989, 

printed  1994 

Gelatin-silver  print,  edition  5/50 

15%  X  19 y4  in.  (40  x  50.2  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

p.  238 

Dong  Kingman 

United  States,  1911-2000 

Jack  Thrasher  Welds  for  America,  c.  1942 
Watercolor  on  paper 
20 V2  X  151/2  in.  (52.1  X  39.4  cm) 
Collection  of  Jonathan  Quincy  Weare 

Maria  Kipp 

Austria,  active  United  States,  1900-1988 

Textile  Length  for  Drapery,  c.  1938 
Mohair,  Lurex,  and  chenille 
113  X  45  in.  (287  X  114.3  cm) 
LACMA,  Costume  Council  Fund 
p.  Ill 


Hiromu  Kira 

Japan,  active  United  States,  1898-1991 

Study — Paper  Work,  1927 
Gelatin-silver  bromide  print 
i2'/8  X  gVs  in.  (30.8  x  24.4  cm) 
LACMA,  Los  Angeles  County  Fund 

Mark  Klett 

United  States,  b.  1952 

San  Francisco  Panorama  after  Muybridge,  1990 
Thirteen  gelatin-silver  prints 
Each:  20  x  16  in.  (50.8  x  40.6  cm) 
LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 
pp.  242-43 

Candace  Kling 

United  States,  b.  1948 

Enchanted  Forest,  1989 

Buckram,  Varaform,  cording,  Polyfil,  satin, 

braze  rods,  and  epoxy 

19  X  i3'/2  x  231/2  in.  (48.3  x  34.3  x  59.7  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  260 

Fred  £.  Kling 

United  States,  b.  1944 

Wedding  Dress,  1973 
Hand-painted  cotton 
cb:  47  in.  (119.3  cm) 
Marna  Clark 
p.  218 

Cindy  Kolodziejski 

United  States,  b.  1962 

Pajama  Party,  1997 

Whiteware 

h:  15%  in.  (40  cm);  d:  5  in.  (12.7  cm) 

Lent  by  Anne  and  Marvin  H.  Cohen 

Paul  Kos 

United  States,  b.  1942 
Marlene  Kos 

United  States 

Riley,  Roily  River,  1975 

Videotape  (black  and  white,  with  sound, 

one  minute) 

Lent  by  Video  Data  Bank 

Lightning,  1976 

Videotape  (black  and  white,  with  sound, 

two  minutes) 

Lent  by  Video  Data  Bank 


Emil  J.  Kosajr. 

France,  active  United  States,  1903-1968 

Freeway  Beginning,  c.  1948 

Watercolor  on  paper 

22  X  3oy8  in.  (55.9  X  77.2  cm) 

The  Buck  Collection,  Laguna  Hills,  California 

p.  165 

Hirokazu  Kosaka 

Japan,  active  United  States,  b.  1948 

Amerika  Maru,  1990 

Excerpts  of  videotape  (color,  with  sound, 

nine  minutes)  of  performance  at  Japan 

America  Center,  Los  Angeles 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Ina  Kozel 

Lithuania,  active  United  States,  b.  1944 

Our  Lady  of  Rather  Deep  Waters,  1985 

Urethane  foam  and  hand-painted  silk 

CB  (with  train):  80  in.  (203.2  cm);  h:  72  in. 

(182.9  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  260 

Roger  Kuntz 

United  States,  1926-1975 

Santa  Ana  Arrows,  c.  1950s 

Oil  on  canvas 

50  x  60  in.  (127  X  152.4  cm) 

The  Buck  Collection,  Laguna  Hills,  California 

p.  165 

Rachel  Lachowicz 

United  States,  b.  1964 

Sarah  #3, 1994 

Lipstick  and  wax 

40  X  24  X  24  in.  (101.6  X  61  X  61  cm) 

Collection  of  Shoshana  and  Wayne  Blank 

p.  254 

Suzanne  Lacy 

United  States 
Leslie  Labowitz 

United  States 

Three  Weeks  in  May,  1977 
Photo  documentation  of  performance/media 
event  at  Los  Angeles  City  Hall,  May  1977, 
transferred  to  videotape  for  this  exhibition 
Lent  by  the  artists 

Gyongy  Laky 

United  States,  b.  1944 

Evening,  1995 

London  plane  tree,  doweled 
21  X24  in.  (53.3  X  61  cm) 
Philadelphia  Museum  of  Art,  gift 
of  the  Women's  Committee 
p.  239 


Paul  Landacre 

United  States,  1893-1963 

Desert  Wall,  1931 
Wood  engraving 

5V2  X  7  in.  (14  X  17.9  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Joseph  M.  Landacre  and  Barbara 

Mercery 

p.  122 

Breaking  Ground,  1933-34 

Wood  engraving 

15%  X  toys  in.  (39.1  X  27  cm) 

United  States  Government  Treasury 

Department,  Public  Works  of  Art  Project, 

Washington,  D.C.,  on  permanent  loan 


Dorothea  Lange 

United  States,  1895-1965 

Five  Workers  against  a  Concrete  Wall, 

Industrial  District,  San  Francisco,  1933 

Gelatin-silver  print 

9'/2  X  9%  in.  (24.1  X  24.5  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art, 

Accessions  Committee  Fund 

A  Sign  of  the  Times — Depression — Mended 

Stockings — Stenographer,  San  Francisco,  c.  1934 

Gelatin-silver  print 

11 '/2  X  8V2  in.  (29.2  X  21.6  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift  of 

Paul  S.  Taylor.  Copyright  the  Dorothea  Lange 

Collection 

p.  115 

Filipinos  Cutting  Lettuce,  Salinas  Valley, 

California,  c.  1935 

Gelatin-silver  print 

8446  X  yVa  in.  (20.8  x  19.4  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift 

of  Paul  S.  Taylor.  Copyright  the  Dorothea 

Lange  Collection 

p.  119 

Drought  Refugees  from  Oklahoma,  Blythe, 

California,  1936 

Gelatin-silver  print 

14  X  11  in.  (35.6  X  27.9  cm) 

The  J.  Paul  Getty  Museum,  Los  Angeles 

Migrant  Mother,  Nipomo,  California,  1936, 

printed  later 

Gelatin-silver  print 

13%  X  io'yi6  in.  (35.2  X  27.7  cm) 

LACMA,  promised  gift  of  Barbara  and 

Buzz  McCoy 


Resettled,  El  Monte,  California,  1936 

Gelatin-silver  print 

8  X  10 '/16  in.  (20.3  X  25.6  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Susan  Ehrens 

P-57 


Jobless  on  the  Edge  of  a  Pea  Field, 

Imperial  Valley,  California,  1937 

Gelatin-silver  print 

8x10  in.  (20.3  X  25.4  cm) 

The  J.  Paul  Getty  Museum,  Los  Angeles 

Pledge  of  Allegiance,  at  Raphael  Elementary 

School,  a  Few  Weeks  before  Evacuation/One 

Nation  Indivisible,  April  20,  1942,  1942 

Gelatin-silver  print 

10  X  8  in.  (25.4  X  20.3  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift 

of  Paul  S.  Taylor.  Copyright  the  Dorothea 

Lange  Collection 

P- 154 

Untitled  [End  of  Shift,  3:30,  Richmond, 

California,  September  1942],  1942 

Gelatin-silver  print 

13  V2  X  10 V2  in.  (34.3  X  26.7  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift 

of  Paul  S.  Taylor.  Copyright  the  Dorothea 

Lange  Collection 

p.  149 

Robin  Lasser 

United  States,  b.  1956 
Kathryn  Sylva 

United  States,  b.  1947 

Extra  Lean,  1998 

Iris  print 

42  X  28  in.  (106.7  X  71.1  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artists 

p.  252 

Alma  Lavenson 

United  States,  1897-1989 

Carquinez  Bridge,  1933 

Gelatin-silver  print 

7  X  9'/2  in.  (18  X  24  cm) 

The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 

p.  107 

Dinh  Q.  Le 

Vietnam,  active  United  States,  b.  1968 

The  Buddha  of  Compassion,  1997 
Chromogenic  development  prints  and 
linen  tape 

44 '/2  X  30  in.  (113  X  76.2  cm) 
Collection  of  Eileen  and  Peter  Norton, 
Santa  Monica 

William  Leavitt 

United  States,  b.  1941 

Untitled,  1990 

Pastel  on  paper 

15  X  44  in.  (38.1  X  111.8  cm) 

Joel  Marshall 

p.  243 


Untitled,  1991 

Pastel  on  paper 

15  X  44  in.  (38.1  X  111.8  cm) 

Margo  Leavin  Gallery 

Rico  Lebrun 

Italy,  active  United  States,  1900-1964 

The  Yellow  Plow,  1949 

Oil  on  Upson  board 

80  X  36  in.  (203  X  91.4  cm) 

Munson-Williams-Proctor  Institute  Museum 

of  Art,  Utica,  New  York,  50.16 

The  Magdalene,  1950 

Tempera  on  Masonite 

63  X  48  in.  (160  X  121.9  cm) 

Santa  Barbara  Museum  of  Art,  gift  of 

Wright  F.  Ludington 

p.  186 

Betty  Lee 

United  States,  b.  1949 

Documented  Memory  #1 

From  the  Livelihood  series,  1995 

Gelatin-silver  print 

40  X  50  in.  (101.6  X  127  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

David  Levinthal 

United  States,  b.  1949 

Untitled  #3 

From  the  Barbie  series,  1997-98 

Dye-diffusion  transfer  (Polaroid)  print 

40  X  3o'/4  in.  (101.6  X  76.8  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

p.  250 

Joe  Lewis 

United  States,  b.  1953 

Watts  Riots  2010, 1999 
Gelatin-silver  print 
20  X  24  in.  (50.8  X  61  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Janet  Lipkin 

United  States,  b.  1948 

Santa  Fe  Cape  #2,  1987 
Wool  knit,  hand  dyed 
cb:  52  in.  (132.1  cm) 
Eileen  R.  Solomon 
p.  261 

Marvin  Lipofsky 

United  States,  b.  1938 

California  Loop  Series,  1970 
Glass,  paint,  and  rayon  flocking 
10  X  8  in.  (25.4  X  20.3  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 
p.  209 


1ST    OF    THE    E> 


Sharon  Lockhart 

United  States,  b.  1964 

Untitled  [Ocean],  1996 

Chromogenic  development  print,  edition  of  6 

49  X  6i'/8  in.  (124.5  X  155.3  cm) 

Collection  of  Gary  and  Tracy  Mezzatesta 

p.  238 

John  Lofaso 

United  States,  b.  1961 

Black  and  White  Cow  #6,  1991 

Gelatin-silver  print 

12  X  20  in.  (30.5  X  50.8  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Craig  KruU  Gallery, 

Santa  Monica 

yolanda  M.  Lopez 

United  States,  b.  1942 

Portrait  of  the  Artiit  as  the  Virgin 
of  Guadalupe,  1978 
Oil  and  pastel  on  paper 
32  X  24  in.  (81.3  X  61  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Erie  Loran 

United  States,  b.  1905 

San  Francisco  Bay,  1940 

Lithograph 

91/4  X  12  in.  (23.5  X30.5  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art,  Albert 

M.  Bender  Collection,  gift  of  Albert  M.  Bender 

Chip  Lord 

United  States,  b.  1944 

Awakening  from  the  20th  Century,  1999 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  thirty-five 

minutes) 

Lent  by  Video  Data  Bank 

Los  Angeles  Fine  Arts  Squad 

Victor  Henderson  (United  States,  b.  1939)  and 
Terry  Schoonhoven  (United  States,  b.  1945) 

Isle  of  California,  1973 

Pencil  and  acrylic  on  photograph 

29 '/2  X  39 '/2  in.  (74.9  X  100.3  cm) 

LACMA,  the  Michael  and  Dorothy  Blankfort 

Collection 

p.  61 

Liza  Lou 

United  States,  b.  1969 

Super  Sister,  1999 

Polyester  resin  and  glass  beads 

98  X  36  X  34  in.  (248.9  X  91.4  X  86.4  cm) 

Collection  of  Vicki  and  Kent  Logan, 

San  Francisco 

p.  254 


Homette,  1999-2000 

Trailer,  mixed  media  with  beads 

144  X  96  X  420  in.  (365.8  X  243.8  X  1066.8  cm) 

Courtesy  Deitch  Projects 

John  Gilbert  Luebtow 

United  States,  b.  1944 

April  29,  1992, 1992 

Glass  and  steel  cable 

108  X  18  in.  (274.3  X  45.7  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

P-237 

Gilbert  (Magu)  Sanchez  Lujdn 

United  States,  b.  1940 

Fragment  from  "Tribute  to  Mesoamerica," 

1974,  replicated  2000 

Found  objects  and  mixed  media 

Approximately  71  x  108  x  48  in.  (180.3  x 

274.3  X  121.9  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Glen  Lukens 

United  States,  1887-1967 

Gray  Bowl,  c.  1940 

Earthenware 

h:  3'/8  in.  (7.9  cm);  d:  ii'/4  in.  (28.6  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Howard  and  Gwen  Laurie 

Smits  in  honor  of  the  museum's  twenty-fifth 

anniversary 

p.  Ill 

Bertha  Lum 

United  States,  1879-1954 

Point  Lobos,  1921 

Color  woodcut 

16 -'74  x  lo'Vie  in.  (42.6  X  27.8  cm) 

Roger  Epperson  and  Carol  Alderdice 

p.  76 

James  Luna 

United  States,  b.  1950 

The  Artifact  Piece,  1987 

Photo  documentation  of  performance 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  265 

The  History  of  the  Luiseno  People:  La  Jolla 

Reservation — Christmas  1990, 1993 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  twenty-seven 

minutes) 

Lent  by  Video  Data  Bank 


Helen  Lundeberg 

United  States,  1908-1999 

The  History  of  Transportation  in  California 

(Panel  1),  study  for  mural  in  Centinela  Park, 

Inglewood,  1940 

Gouache  on  paper 

7  X  34  in.  (17.9  X  86.4  cm) 

Tobey  C.  Moss  Gallery 

The  History  of  Transportation  in  California 

(Panel  8),  study  for  mural  in  Centinela  Park, 

Inglewood,  1940 

Gouache  on  paper 

7  X  26  in.  (17.9  X  66  cm) 

Tobey  C.  Moss  Gallery 

p.  109 

The  Shadow  on  the  Road  to  the  Sea,  i960 
Oil  on  canvas 
40  X  50  in.  (101.6  X  127  cm) 
Perlmutter  Fine  Arts,  San  Francisco 
p.  169 

Fernand  Lungren 

United  States,  1859-1932 

Wall  Street  Canyon,  n.d. 
Oil  on  canvas 
36  X  27  in.  (91.4  X  68.6  cm) 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robert  Veloz 

Stanton  MacDonald-Wright 

United  States,  1890-1973 

Cation  Synchromy  (Orange),  c.  1920 

Oil  on  canvas 

24 Vs  X  24'/8  in.  (61.3  X  61.3  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Frederick  R.  Weisman  Art  Museum, 

University  of  Minnesota,  gift  of  lone  and 

Hudson  Walker 

P- 135 

Santa  Monica,  1933 

Pencil  on  paper 

21V2  X  27'/2  in.  (54.6  X  69.9  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Merle  Armitage 

Revoh,  1936 

Lithograph 

18  X  12V2  in.  (45.7x31.8  cm) 

Sragow  Gallery,  New  York 

p.  119 

Helen  MacGregor 

England,  active  United  States,  1876-c.  1954 

Reclining  Woman  with  Guitar,  c.  1921 

Gelatin-silver  print 

18  X  14  in.  (45.7x35.6  cm) 

The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 

p.  90 


Reginald  Machell 

England,  active  United  States,  1854-1927 

Katherine  Tingley's  Chair,  The  Iheosophiial 

Society,  Point  Loma,  c.  1905-10 

Carved  and  painted  wood 

■J1V2  X  19V2  X  25  in.  (133.4  X  74-9  x  63.5  cm) 

The  Theosophical  Society  (Pasadena) 

p.  86 

Mark  Mack 

Austria,  active  United  States,  b.  1949 

Baum  Residence,  Berkeley,  Oblique  Plan  and 

Elevations,  1987 

Inlc  on  board 

40  X  30  in.  (101.6  X  76.2  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art, 

gift  of  the  artist 

Meg  Mack 

United  States,  b.  1962 

Superfreak,  1996 

Wood  and  spray  paint 

90  X  24  X  10  in.  (228.6  X  61  X  25.4  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art, 

gift  of  Robert  Harshorn  Shimslial<  and 

Marion  Brenner 

Malibu  Potteries 

United  States,  1926-1932 

Tile  with  Mayan  Image,  1926-32 
Earthenware 

10  X  10  in.  (25.4  X  25.4  cm) 
Collection  of  Norman  Karlson 

Arturo  Mallmann 

Uruguay,  active  United  States,  b.  1953 

The  New  L.A.  #40, 1994 
Acrylic  on  Masonite 
30  X  36  in.  (76.2  X  91.4  cm) 
Iturralde  Gallery  Collection 

Sam  Maloof 

United  States,  b.  1916 

Rocking  Chair,  1997 

Cherry  wood  and  ebony 

26  X32  in.  (66  X81.3  cm) 

LACMA,  funds  provided  by  the  Decorative 

Arts  Council  Acquisition  Fund 

P-  239 

Man  Ray  [Emmanuel  Radnitsky] 

United  States,  1890-1976 

Watts  Towers,  Los  Angeles,  1940s 
Gelatin-silver  print 

11  Vs  X  9V2  in.  (29.5  X  24.1  cm) 
Sandor  Family  Collection 

p.  168 


Mike  Mandel 

United  Stales,  b.  1950 
Larry  Sultan 

United  States,  b.  1946 

Set-up  for  Oranges  on  Fire,  1975,  printed  1999 

Chromogenic  development  print 

20  X  24  in.  ( 50.8  X  61  cm) 

Lent  by  Larry  Sultan,  courtesy  the  artists 

p.  192 

K.  Lee  Manuel 

United  States,  b.  1936 

Maat's  Wing  #3,  1994 

Painted  feathers 

d:  23 '/2  in.  (59.7  cm) 

Collection  of  lulie  Schatler  Dale,  courtesy  of 

lulie:  Artisans'  Gallery,  New  York 

p.  261 

Tom  Marioni 

United  States,  b.  1937 

Cafe  Society,  1979 

Excerpts  from  the  videotape  San  Francisco, 

1984  (color  and  black  and  white,  with  sound, 

ten  minutes)  of  artists  gathering  at  Breen's 

Cafe  in  San  Francisco 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Richard  Marquis 

United  States,  b.  1945 

Hexagonal  Star  Bottle  and  Stars  and  Stripes 

Bottle,  1969 

Blown  glass,  murrine  &nd  a  ranne  techniques 

4V4  x  3  in.  (10.8  X  7.6  cm);  2%  x  2V2  in. 

(7  x6.4  cm) 

Courtesy  Elliott  Brown  Gallery,  Seatde 

Hexagonal  Bottles  with  "Fuck"  Text,  1969-70 

Blown  glass,  filigrana  and  murrine  techniques 

4V4  X  2%  in.  (10.8  X  7  cm);  2%  x  2'/2  in. 

(7  x6.4  cm) 

Courtesy  Elliott  Brown  Gallery,  Seattle 

Display  Box  of  Lord's  Prayer  Murrine,  1972 

Glass  murrine  and  specimen  box 

2%  X  i'A  in.  (7  X  8.3  cm) 

Courtesy  Elliott  Brown  Gallery,  Seatde 

Richard  Marquis 

United  States,  b.  1945 
Nirmal  Kaur 

United  States,  b.  circa  1948 

American  Acid  Capsule  with  Cloth  Container, 

1969-70 

Solid-worked  glass  and  cloth 

2X4in.  (5.1  X  10.2  cm) 

Collection  of  Pam  Biallas 

p.  217 


Fletcher  Martin 

United  States,  1904-1979 

Trouble  in  Frisco,  c.  1935 

Lithograph 

19  X  I3'yi6  in.  (48.3  X  35.4  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  lean  Martin  Wexler 


Doniel  J.  Martinez 

United  States,  b.  1957 

Museum  Tags:  Second  Movement  (Overture); 

or,  Ouverture  con  Claque  (Overture  with  Hired 

Audience  Members),  1993 

Thirty-six  tags  from  performance  at  1993 

Whitney  Biennale 

Varied  dimensions 

Collection  Tom  Patchett,  Los  Angeles 

Patricia  Marx 

Australia,  active  United  States 

Obniaru,  1952 

16  mm  film  (color,  with  sound,  four  minutes) 

Lent  by  Dr.  William  Moritz 

John  Mason 

United  States,  b.  1927 

Sculpture  [Desert  Cross],  1963 

Stoneware,  glazed 

42  X  13  X  11  in.  (109.2  X  33  X  27.9  cm) 

Courtesy  Sheppard  Gallery,  University 

of  Nevada,  Reno 

p.  186 

T.  Kelly  Mason 

United  States,  b.  1964 

Los  Angeles  from  the  Air,  May  16,  1995 

From  the  project  High  Points  Drifter,  1995 

Fifteen  aerial  photographs  of  Los  Angeles 

and  a  topographical  map 

Each  photo:  16  x  20 "/16  in.  (40.6  x  53  cm); 

map:  30  x  38  in.  (76.2  x  96.5  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Arthur  Frank  Mathews 

United  States,  1860-1945 

California,  1905 

Oil  on  canvas 

26  X  23 '/2  in.  (66  X  59.7  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift 

of  Concours  d'Antiques,  the  Art  Guild 

p.  82 


Arthur  Frank  Mathews 

United  States,  1860-1945 
Lucia  Kleinhans  Mathews 

United  States,  1870-1955 

Mathews  Furniture  Shop,  United  States, 

1906-20 

Desk,  c.  1910 

Carved  and  painted  maple  [?],  oak,  tooled 

leather,  and  replaced  hardware 

59  X  48  X  20  in.  (149.9  X  121.9  X  50.8  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift 

of  Mrs.  Margaret  R.  Kleinhans 

p.  82 

Three-Panel  Screen,  c.  1913 

Wood,  carved  and  painted 

36  X  65%  in.  (91.4  X  167  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift  of  the 

Estate  of  Marjorie  Eaton 

Rectangular  Box  with  Lid,  1929 

Painted  wood 

5  X  16  in.  (12.7  X  40.6  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift 

of  Concours  d'Antiques,  the  Art  Guild 

p.  80 

Oscar  Maurer 

United  States,  1871-1965 

Eucalyptus  Grove  Silhouetted  against  a  Cloudy 

Sky,  Golden  Gate  Park.  San  Francisco,  c.  1915 

Gelatin-silver  print 

9'/2x6'/2  in.  (24.1  X  16.5  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift 

of  the  artist 

p.  69 

Bernard  Maybeck 

United  States,  1862-1957 

First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  Berkeley,  South 

Elevation,  1910 

Watercolor  on  paper 

27  X  41  in.  (68.6  x  104.1  cm) 

First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist 

Paul  McCarthy 

United  States,  b.  1945 

Sauce,  1974 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  fifteen  minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Pinocchio  Plug,  1994 
Modeling  clay,  plaster,  and  broomstick 
42  X  18  X  17  in.  (106.7  X  45.7  X  43.2  cm) 
LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided  by 
the  Modern  and  Contemporary  Art  Council 


Robert  McChesney 

United  States,  b.  1913 

Bebop,  c.  1944 

Watercolor  on  paper 

22V'2  X  14 V2  in.  (57.2  X  36.8  cm) 

Collection  of  Nancy  and  John  Weare 

John  McCracken 

United  States,  b.  1934 

Don't  Tell  Me  When  to  Stop,  1966-67 
Fiberglass  and  lacquer  on  plywood 
120  X  20 V2  X  3'/2  in.  (304.8  X  52.1  X  8.9  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  the  Kleiner  Foundation 

Harrison  Mcintosh 

United  States,  b.  1914 

Lidded  Jar,  1959 

Stoneware  with  sgraffito  stripes 

h:  11  in.  (27.9  cm);  d;  9  in.  (22.9  cm) 

Collection  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  E.  Brandow 

John  McLaughlin 

United  States,  1898-1976 

Untitled,  1952 

Oil  and  casein  on  fiberboard 

32 Vs  X  48 '/8  in.  (81.6  X  122.2  cm) 

Hirshhorn  Museum  and  Sculpture  Garden, 

Smithsonian  Institution,  Joseph  H.  Hirshhorn 

Purchase  Fund,  1991 

p.  187 

Untitled,  1955 

Oil  on  Masonite 

48  X  32  in.  (121.9  X  81.3  cm) 

Collection  of  Fannie  and  Alan  Leslie 

Michael  C.  McMillen 

United  States,  b.  1946 

Niponw,  1980 

Mixed  media 

74  X  11  X  11  in.  (188  X  27.9  X  27.9  cm) 

LACMA,  Mac  L.  Sherwood,  M.D.,  Memorial 

Fund  and  the  Modern  and  Contemporary  Art 

Council,  Young  Talent  Purchase  Award 

Central  Meridian,  The  Garage,  1981 

Mixed  media 

Dimensions  variable 

Long-term  loan  to  lacma  by  the  artist 

p.  46 

Rebecca  Medel 

United  States,  b.  1947 

Labyrinth  with  White  Window,  1996 
Linen;  three  squares  of  ikat,  resist  dyed; 
and  square-knotted  net,  stiffened 
67y8  X  67  X  9  in.  (171.1  X  170.1  x  22.9  cm) 
The  Art  Institute  of  Chicago,  gift  of  Joan 
Cochran  Rieveschl 


Richard  Meier 

United  States,  b.  1934 

The  Getty  Center,  Los  Angeles,  Museum 

Entrance  Area,  1991 

Graphite  on  yellow  tracing  paper 

24  X  24  in.  (61  X  61  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Hansel  Meith 

Germany,  active  United  States,  1909-1998 

Untitled,  c.  1935 
Gelatin-silver  print 
14  X  io'/2  in.  (35.6  X  26.7  cm) 
Collection  of  Stephen  White  II 

James  Melchert 

United  States,  b.  1930 

Leg  Pot  1, 1962 

Stoneware,  lead,  and  cloth 

11  X32  in.  (27.9  X81.3  cm) 

American  Craft  Museum,  New  York,  gift  of  the 

Johnson  Wax  Company,  from  Objects:  usa, 

1977,  donated  to  the  American  Craft  Museum 

by  the  American  Craft  Council,  1990 

Knud  Merrild 

Denmark,  active  United  States,  1894-1954 

Exhilaration,  1935 

Mixed-media  collage  on  wood-pulp  board 

14%  x  18%  in.  (37.8  X  47.6  cm) 

The  Buck  Collection,  Laguna  Hills,  California 

Flux  Lepidoptera,  1944 

Oil  on  Masonite 

18V2  X  14  in.  (47  X  35.6  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Irving  Stone 

Flux  Bouquet,  1947 

OU  on  Masonite 

19  X  14 '/2  in.  (48.3  X  36.8  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Dr.  William  R.  Valentiner 

p.  169 

Amalia  Mesa-Bains 

United  States,  b.  1943 

Venus  Envy:  Chapter  One  (or.  The  First  Holy 

Communion  Moments  before  the  End),  1993 

Vanity  table,  chair,  mirror,  and  mixed  media 

60  X  48  X  36  in.  (152.4  X  121.9  X  91.4  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Bernice  Steinbaum 

Gallery,  Miami,  Florida 

P-255 


Henry  Meyers 

United  Stales,  1867-1943 

Building  for  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and 

Church  Extensions  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  Corner 

Washington  and  Stockton  Streets,  1911 

Graphite  and  watercolor  on  paper 

171/2  X  20  in.  (44.5  X  50.8  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Documents  Collection,  College 

of  Environmental  Design,  UC  Berkeley 

Meyers  Pottery  Company 

United  States,  dates  unknown 

"California  Rainbow"  Garden  Vase,  c.  1930 

Ceramic 

h:  18  in.  (45.7  cm);  d:  loVi  in.  (26.7  cm) 

Ron  and  Susan  Vander  Molen 

Willie  Robert  Middlebrook 

United  States,  b.  1957 

In  His  "Own"  Image 

From  the  series  Portraits  of  My  People,  1992 

Sixteen  gelatin-silver  prints 

Each:  24  x  20  in.  (61  x  50.8  cm);  Overall: 

96  x  80  in.  (243.8  X  203.2  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

p.  237 

Barse  Miller 

United  States,  1904-1973 

Apparition  over  Los  Angeles,  1932 

Oil  on  canvas 

50  x  60  in.  (127  X  152.4  cm) 

The  Buck  Collection,  Laguna  Hills,  California 

p.  105 

Migrant  America,  1939 

Oil  on  canvas 

30  X  40  in.  (76.2  X  101.6  cm) 

Collection  of  the  Orange  County  Museum 

of  Art,  Museum  purchase  with  funds  provided 

through  prior  gift  of  Lois  Outerbridge 


Branda  Miller 

United  States,  b.  1952 

L.A.  Nickel,  1983 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  nine  minutes) 

Lent  by  Video  Data  Bank 

Roger  Minick 

United  States,  b.  1944 

Woman  with  Scarf  at  Inspiration  Point, 

Yosernite  National  Park,  1980 

Dye-coupler  print 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Jan  Kesner  Gallery 

P-195 


Richard  Misrach 

United  States,  b.  1949 

TV.  Antenna,  Salton  Sea,  California,  1985, 

printed  1996 

Dye-coupler  print,  edition  5/7 

30  X  40  in.  ( 76.2  X  101.6  cm ) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

p.  240 

Peter  Mitchell-Dayton 

United  States,  b.  1962 

The  Source,  1998-99 
Graphite  on  paper 
38  X  50  in.  (96.5  x127  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Toyo  Miyatake 

Japan,  active  United  States,  1895-1979 

Untitled,  1929 

Gelatin-silver  print 

I3y8  X  loVs  in.  (34  x  26.6  cm) 

Archie  Miyatake,  Miyatake  Collection 

P-137 

Untitled,  1930 

Gelatin-silver  print 

I3y8  X  loys  in.  (34  X  26.6  cm) 

Archie  Miyatake,  Miyatake  Collection 

p.  141 

Untitled,  1943 

Gelatin-silver  print 

7^16  X  9'/2  in.  (19.2  X  24.1  cm) 

Archie  Miyatake,  Miyatake  Collection 

Untitled,  1943 

Gelatin-silver  print 

10%  X  131/4  in.  (26.4  X  33.7  cm) 

Archie  Miyatake,  Miyatake  Collection 

p.  156 

Untitled,  1943 

Gelatin-silver  print 

7^16  X  9V2  in.  (18.9  X  24.1  cm) 

Archie  Miyatake,  Miyatake  Collection 

Robert  Mizer 

United  States,  1922-1992 

Don  Silvis,  Athletic  Model  Guild,  c.  1947 
Gelatin-silver  print 
4  X  3  in.  (10.2  X  7.6  cm) 
Collection  of  John  Sonsini 

Quinn  Sondergaard,  Athletic  Model  Guild, 

c.  1954 

Gelatin-silver  print 

4x  5  in.  (10.2  X  12.7  cm) 

Collection  of  John  Sonsini 

P-174 


Gerald  Sullivan,  Athletic  Model  Guild,  c.  1957 
Gelatin-silver  print 
4x5  in.  (10.2  X  12.7  cm) 
Collection  of  John  Sonsini 

Susan  Mogul 

United  States 

Take  Off,  1974 

Videotape  (black  and  white,  with  sound, 

ten  minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Linda  Montano 

United  States 

Chicken  Woman,  1972 
Photo  documentation  of  performance, 
transferred  to  videotape  for  this  exhibition 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Roberto  Montenegro 

Mexico,  active  United  States,  1885-1968 

Margo,  1937 

Oil  on  canvas 

25  X  19V2  in.  (63.5  x  49.5  cm) 

LACMA,  The  Bernard  and  Edith  Lewin 

Collection  of  Mexican  Art 

P-134 

Malaquias  Montoya 

United  States,  b.  1938 

jSi  Se  Puede!,  1988-89 

Screenprint 

32  X  23  in.  (81.3  x  58.4  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided 

by  the  Art  Museum  Council 

p.  267 

Moore,  Lyndon,  Turnbull,  and  Whitaker 

United  States,  1962-70 

Charles  W.  Moore  (United  States,  1925-1993), 
Donlyn  Lyndon  (United  States,  b.  1936), 
William  Turnbull  (United  States,  b.  1935),  and 
Richard  R.  Whitaker  (United  States,  b.  1929) 

Sea  Ranch  Condominium  1,  Perspective,  1963 

Graphite  on  tracing  paper 

17  x  34  in.  (43.2  X  86.4  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art,  gift 

of  William  Turnbull 

Julia  Morgan 

United  States,  1872-1957 

Hearst  Castle,  San  Simeon.  Elevation  of  Entry, 

1922-26 

Charcoal  on  paper 

14  X  24  in.  (35.6  X  61  cm) 

Special  Collections  and  University  Archives, 

Kennedy  Library,  California  Polytechnic 

University,  San  Luis  Obispo 


Yasumasa  Morimura 

Japan,  active  United  States,  b.  1951 

Self-Portrait  (Actress) /After  Black  Marilyn 
From  the  Self-Portrait  (Actress)  series,  1996 
Silver  dye-bleach  (Ilfochrome)  print 
49  X39  in.  (124.5  X  99.1  cm) 
Collection  of  Eileen  and  Peter  Norton, 
Santa  Monica 


Rock  'n'  Block,  1998 
Earthenware,  overgiazed 
4  X  4%  in.  (10.2  X  11.7  cm) 
Courtesy  Frank  Lloyd  Gallery 

Trick  Tracy,  1998 

Earthenware,  overgiazed 

4  X  5  in.  (10.2  X  12.7  cm) 

Courtesy  Michael  and  Patti  Marcus 


Manuel  Neri 

United  States,  b.  1930 

Hombre  Colorado,  c.  1957-58 

Plaster,  oil-based  enamel,  wood,  wire, 

and  canvas 

69  X  16  X  20V4  in.  (175.3  X  40.6  X  51.4  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Campbell  Thiebaud 

Gallery,  San  Francisco 


Morphosis 

United  States,  founded  1975 

Thom  Mayne,  United  States,  b.  1944 

Diamond  Ranch  High  School,  Pomona,  Digital 

Model,  Aerial  View,  1997 

Digital  print 

40  X  20  in.  (101.6  X  50.8  cm) 

Lent  by  Morphosis 

Ed  Moses 

United  States,  b.  1926 

Untitled,  1972 

Rhoplex  and  acrylic  on  laminated  tissue 

79  X  93  in.  (200.7  X  236.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

P-213 

Eric  Moss 

United  States,  b.  1943 

Culver  City  Complex,  1988 
Ink  on  Mylar 

30  X36  in.  (76.2  X  91.4  cm) 
Eric  Ovven  Moss  Architects 

Jose  Moya  del  Pino 

Spain,  active  United  States,  1891-1969 

Chinese  Mother  and  Child,  1933 

Oil  on  canvas 

40  X  30  in.  (101.6  X  76.2  cm) 

Private  collection 

p.  142 

Lee  Mullican 

United  States,  1919-1998 

Space,  1951 

Oil  on  canvas 

40  X  50  in.  (101.6  X  127  cm) 

LACMA,  partial  and  promised  gift 

of  Fannie  and  Alan  Leslie 

p.  189 

Ron  Nagle 

United  States,  b.  1939 

Blue  Sahii  Two,  1998 
Earthenware,  overgiazed 
4x5  in.  (10.2  X  12.7  cm) 
Collection  of  Wendy  Barrie  Brotman 


Kentaro  Nakomura 

lapan,  active  United  States,  active  1920S-30S 

Evening  Wave,  c.  1926 
Gelatin-silver  bromide  print 
13%6  X  io'/i6  in.  (34.5  cm  x  26.9  cm) 
Dennis  and  Amy  Reed  Collection 
p.  127 

Henry  Nappenbach 

Germany,  active  United  States,  1862-1931 

Chinese  New  Year  Celebration, 

San  Francisco,  1904 

Oil  on  canvas 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 

Collection  of  Dr.  Oscar  and  Trudy  Lemer 

p.  96 

San  Francisco,  Chinatown,  1906 

Oil  on  canvas 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 

Collection  of  Dr.  Oscar  and  Trudy  Lemer 

Gertrud  Natzler 

Austria,  active  United  States,  1908-1971 
Otto  Natzler 

Austria,  active  United  States,  b.  1908 

Teapot,  Creamer,  Sugar  Bowl,  and  Cups,  1943 
Earthenware,  uranium  glaze 
Approximate  measurements:  Teapot:  6  in. 
(15.2  cm);  Creamer:  3  in.  (7.6  cm);  Sugar  bowl: 
4  in.  (10.2  cm);  Cups:  3  in.  (7.6  cm) 
Courtesy  Susan  and  Michael  Rich 

Bruce  Nauman 

United  States,  b.  1941 

Black  Balls,  1969 

Super  8  film  (color,  without  sound,  eight 

minutes),  transferred  to  videotape  for  this 

exhibition 

Lent  by  Electronic  Arts  Intermix 

Charles  P.  Neilson 

Scotland,  active  United  States,  active 
1890S-1900S 

In  Fish  Alley,  Chinatown,  San  Francisco,  1897 

Watercolor  on  paper 

13x191/2  in.  (33  x49.5  cm) 

The  Buck  Collection,  Laguna  Hills,  California 


Richard  Neutra 

Austria,  active  United  States,  1892-1970 

Lovell  Health  House,  Los  Angeles,  Elevations 

and  Perspective,  1927 

Graphite  on  paper 

i2'/4  X  i4'/2  in.  (31.1  X  36.8  cm);  11  x  i3'/2  in. 

(27.9  X34.3  cm) 

UCLA  Library,  Department  of  Special 

Collections 

Cantilever  Chair,  1929 

Redesigned  by  Dion  Neutra,  reissue  manufac- 
tured by  Prospettive,  Italy,  1992 
Chrome-plated  steel  with  upholstery 
24 '/4  X  26  in.  (61.5  X  66  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  ICF  (International  Contract 
Furnishing,  Inc.) 

Channel  Heights  Chair,  1940-42 
Wood,  metal,  and  plastic 
35  X  37  in.  (88.9  X  94  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Dr.  Thomas  S.  Hines 
p.  151 

Daniel  Nicoletta 

United  States,  b.  1954 

MindKamp  Kabaret,  1976 
Gelatin-silver  print 
11  X14  in.  (27.9  X35.6  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Suit,  1994 

Chromogenic  development  print 
16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Linda  Nishio 

United  States,  b.  1952 

Kikoemasu  ka?  (Can  You  Hear  Me?),  1980 
Twelve  gelatin-silver  prints 
Overall:  58  x  38  in.  (147.3  x  96.5  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 
p.  265 

Don  Normark 

United  States,  b.  1928 

La  Loma,  1949 

Artists  book  with  sbcty-three  photographs, 

sixty-eight  pages 

9  X  SVa  X  1  in.  (22.9  x  21.3  x  .16  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 


Untilh'il 

iTom  La  l.dnia  series,  1949 

Gelatin-silver  print 

II  X  14  in.  (27.9  X  35.6  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  166 

Chiura  Obata 

Japan,  active  United  States,  1885-1975 

Untitled  (Alniii,  Santa  Cruz  Mountains.),  1922 
Sketchbook:  sumi  and  silk  mounted  on  board 
i4'/2  X  i6'/2  in.  (36.8  X  41.9  cm) 
Lent  by  the  Obata  Family 

New  Moon,  Eagle  Peak,  1927 
Sumi  and  watercolor  on  paper 
15%  X  II  in.  (40  X  28  cm) 
Lent  by  the  Obata  Family 
p.  128 

El  Capitan:  Yosemite  National  Park, 

California,  1930 

Color  woodcut 

15%  xii  in.  (40  X28  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Obata  Family 

Farewell  Picture  of  the  Bay  Bridge, 

April  30,  1942,  1942 

Sumi  on  paper 

15V8  X  20%  in.  (38.5  X  53  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

Achenbach  Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts, 

Gift  of  the  Obata  Family 

p.  155 

Manuel  Ocampo 

Philippines,  active  United  States,  b.  1965 

Untitled  (Ethnic  Map  of  Los  Angeles),  1987 

Acrylic  on  canvas 

66 '/2  X  59  in.  (168.9  X  149.9  cm) 

Collection  Tom  Patchett,  Los  Angeles 

P-245 

Victor  Ochoa 

United  States,  b.  1948 

Border  Bingo/Loteria  Fronteriza,  1987 

Serigraph  on  paper 

36 '/2  X  26  in.  (92.8  X  66  cm) 

lam/ocma  Art  Collection  Trust,  partial  gift  of 

Charlie  Miller  and  partial  museum  purchase 

with  funds  provided  by  the  National 

Endowment  for  the  Arts,  a  federal  agency 

Claes  Oldenburg 

Sweden,  active  United  States,  b.  1929 

Profile  Airflow,  1968-69 
Molded  polyurethane  over  lithograph 
33 '/2  X  65 '/2  in.  (85.1  X  166.4  cm) 
Gemini  G.E.L.,  Los  Angeles,  California 


Otis  Oldfield 

Liiiitcd  States,  1890-1969 

Telegraph  Hill,  c.  1927 

Oil  on  canvas 

40  X  33 14  in.  (101.6  X  84.5  cm) 

The  Delman  Collection,  San  Francisco 

Bay  Bridge  Series,  1937 

Lithograph 

19  X  i4'/4  in.  (48.3  X  36.2  cm) 

United  States  Government  Treasury 

L^epartment,  Public  Works  of  Art  Project, 

Washington,  D.C.,  on  permanent  loan 

to  LACMA 

Gordon  Onslow  Ford 

England,  active  United  States,  b.  1912 

Fragment  of  an  Endless  (II),  1952 
Casein  on  wrinkled  paper 
3i'/2  X  67  in.  (80  X  170.2  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 
p.  189 

Catherine  Opie 

United  States,  b.  1961 

Self-Portrait,  1993 

Chromogenic  development  (Ektacolor)  print 

40  X  30  in.  (101.6  X  76.2  cm) 

LACMA,  Audrey  and  Sydney  Irmas  Collection 

P-  253 

Ted  Orland 

United  States,  b.  1941 

Clearing  Winter  Storm,  San  Mateo  Freeway, 

c.  1965 

Gelatin-silver  print 

6%  X  9V4  in.  (17.1  X  23.5  cm) 

Collection  of  Mrs.  Nancy  Dubois 

Orry-Kelly 

Australia,  active  United  States,  1897-1964 

Costume  for  Dolores  Del  Rio,  created 
for  "In  Caliente,"  Warner  Bros.,  1935 
Silk  crepe  and  silk  fringe 
cb:  54  in.  (137.2  cm) 
Warner  Bros. 

Ruben  Ortiz-Torres 

Mexico,  active  LJnited  States  and  Mexico, 
b.  1964 

California  Taco,  Santa  Barbara,  California,  1995 

Silver  dye-bleach  (Cibachrome)  print, 

edition  4/20 

16  X  22 '/2  in.  (40.6  X  57.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Jan  Kesner  Gallery 

p.  263 


Alien  Toy,  1997 

Custom  lowrider  Nissan  pickup  truck  with 

hydraulics  and  video 

Assembled:  approximately  60  x  174  x  72  in. 

( 152.4  X  442  X  182.9  cm) 

Collection  Tom  Patchett,  Los  Angeles,  courtesy 

Track  16  Gallery,  Santa  Monica 

Alien  Toy,  1998 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  ten  minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

John  O'Shea 

Ireland,  active  United  States,  1876-1956 

The  Madrone,  1921 

Oil  on  canvas 

25 '/2  X  29 '4  in.  (64.8  X  74.3  cm) 

Mills  College  Art  Museum,  Oakland, 

California,  gift  of  Albert  M.  Bender 

p.  68 

John  Outterbridge 

United  States,  b.  1933 

Together  Let  Us  Break  Bread,  1968 

Assemblage 

76  X  64  X  16  in.  (193  X  162.6  X  40.6  cm) 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Stanley  C.  Patterson 

p.  215 

Bill  Owens 

United  States,  b.  1938 

Our  house  is  built  with  the  living  room  in  the 

back,  so  in  the  evenings  we  sit  out  front  of  the 

garage  and  watch  the  traffic  go  by,  1970-71, 

printed  1982 

Gelatin-silver  print 

8Vs  X  io'/2  in.  (20.6  X  26.7  cm) 

LACMA,  promised  gift  of  anonymous  donor, 

Los  Angeles 


Wolfgang  Paalen 

Austria,  active  Mexico  and  United  States, 
1907-1959 

Messengers  from  the  Three  Poles,  1949 

Oil  on  canvas 

91  X  83  in.  (231.1  x  210.8  cm) 

Private  collection 

p.  188 

Phil  Paradise 

United  States,  1905-1997 

Ranch  near  San  Luis  Obispo, 

Evening  Light,  c.  1935 

Oil  on  canvas 

28  X  34  in.  (71.1  X  86.4  cm) 

The  Buck  Collection,  Laguna  Hills,  California 

p.  116 


Claire  Campbell  Park 

United  States,  b.  1951 

Cycle,  1977 

Coiled  raffia  with  wood  base 

Sculpture  and  base:  6  x  42  x  15  in. 

(15.2x106.7x38.1  cm) 

Collection  of  Erin  Younger  and  Ed  Liebow 

p.  231 

David  Park 

United  States,  1911-1960 

Rehearsal,  c.  1949-50 

Oil  on  canvas 

46  X  35%  in.  (116.8  x  90.8  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift  of  the 

Anonymous  Donor  Program  of  the  American 

Federation  of  Arts 

p.  184 

Bather  with  Knee  Up,  1957 

Oil  on  canvas 

56  X  50  in.  (142.2  X  127  cm) 

Collection  of  the  Orange  County  Museum 

of  Art,  gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Roy  Moore 

Patricia  Patterson 

United  States,  b.  1941 

La  Casita  en  La  Colonia  Altamira  calk 

Rio  de  Janiero  no.  6757,  Tijuana,  1997 

Photo  documentation  of  installation  in  Tijuana, 

transferred  to  videotape  for  this  exhibition 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Charles  Payzant 

Canada,  active  United  States,  1898-1980 

Wilshire  Boulevard,  c.  1930 
Watercolor  on  paper 
19  X  24  in.  (48.3  X  61  cm) 
The  McClelland  Collection 
p.  105 

Agnes  Pelton 

Germany,  active  United  States,  1881-1961 

Sandstorm,  1932 

Oil  on  canvas 

3o'/4  X  22  in.  (76.8  X  55.9  cm) 

Anonymous  lender 

p.  123 

Alchemy,  1937-39 

Oil  on  canvas 

36 '4  X  26  in.  (92.1  X  66  cm) 

The  Buck  Collection,  Laguna  Hills,  California 

Irving  Penn 

United  States,  b.  1917 

Hell's  Angel  (Doug),  San  Francisco,  1967 
Gelatin-silver  print 
20x24  in.  (50.8  X  61  cm) 
Collection  of  Stephen  I.  Reinstein 


Frederic  Penney 

United  States,  1900-1988 

Madonna  of  Chavez  Ravine,  c.  1932 

Watercolor  on  paper 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 

Collection  of  Edmund  F.  Penney  and 

Mercedes  A.  Penney 

p.  105 

Charles  Rollo  Peters 

United  States,  1862-1928 

Adobe  House  on  the  Lagoon,  n.d. 
Oil  on  canvas 

16  X  24'/4  in.  (40.6  X  61.5  cm) 
Collection  of  G.  Breitweiser 
p.  91 

Raymond  Pettibon 

United  States,  b.  1957 

Untitled  [Don't  you  seej,  1985 

Pen  and  ink  on  paper 

11  X  8V2  in.  (27.9  X  21.6  cm) 

Courtesy  Regen  Projects,  Los  Angeles 

Untitled  [For  truth,  justice!,  1989 
Pen  and  ink  on  paper 
14x11  in.  (35.6  X  27.9  cm) 
Courtesy  Regen  Projects,  Los  Angeles 

Untitled  [Here  and  there  it[,  1995 
Pen  and  ink  on  paper 

17  X  14  in.  (43.2  X  35.6  cm) 
Courtesy  Regen  Projects,  Los  Angeles 

Untitled  [My  best  side],  1996 
Pen  and  ink  on  paper 

18  X  12 '4  in.  (45.7  X  31.1  cm) 
Courtesy  Regen  Projects,  Los  Angeles 

Timothy  Pflueger 

United  States,  1892-1946 

San  Francisco  Bay  Bridge,  Architectural 
Detail  #4,  c.  1936 
Graphite  on  tissue  paper 
22%  X  18 '/s  in.  (58.2  X  46  cm) 
Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 
Achenbach  Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts,  gift 
of  Ronald  E.  Bornstein  in  memory  of  Anna 
Louise  Wilson 

Gottordo  Piazzoni 

Switzerland,  active  United  States,  1872-1945 

Untitled  Triptych,  n.d. 

Oil  on  canvas 

Overall:  23'/2  x  49y4  in.  (59.7  x  126.4  cm) 

The  Buck  Collection,  Laguna  Hills,  California 

p.  83 


Lari  Pittman 

United  States,  b.  1952 

Spiritual  and  Needy,  1991-92 
Acrylic  and  enamel  on  wood  panel 
82  x  66  in.  (208.3  X  167.6  cm) 
Alice  and  Marvin  Kosmin 

P-257 

Patti  Podesta 

LInited  States,  b.  1959 

Ricochet,  1981 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  two  minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Bruce  Porter 

United  States,  1865-1953 

Presidio  Cliffs,  1908 
Oil  on  canvas 
27  x  32  in.  (68.6  X  81.3  cm) 
Private  collection 

Clayton  S.  Price 

United  States,  1874-1950 

Coastline,  c.  1924 

Oil  on  canvas 

40  Vs  X  50  in.  (101.9  X  127  cm) 

Hirshhorn  Museum  and  Sculpture  Garden, 

Smithsonian  Institution,  gift  of  Joseph  H. 

Hirshhorn  Purchase  Fund,  1966 

p.  126 

Ken  Price 

United  States,  b.  1935 

Untitled,  Mound,  1959 
Ceramic,  glazed 
21  X  20  in.  (53.3  X  50.8  cm) 
Collection  of  Billy  Al  Bengston 

S.  D.  Green,  1966 

Stoneware,  with  automotive  lacquer  and  acrylic 

5  X9V2  in.  (12.7  X  24.1  cm) 

Collection  of  Joan  and  Jack  Quinn, 

Beverly  Hills 

Cold,  1968 

Ceramic,  glazed  and  painted  with  acrylic 

9 '4  X  8  in.  (23.5  X  20.3  cm) 

Ken  and  Happy  Price 

p.  209 

Antonio  Prieto 

Spain,  active  United  States,  1913-1967 

Bottle,  1959-60 

Stoneware,  glazed 

h:  8V2  in.  (21.6  cm);  d:  8'4  in.  (21  cm) 

Scripps  College,  Claremont,  California,  gift 

of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Marer 


J.  John  Priola 

Uniled  States,  b.  i960 

Hole,  1993 

Gelatin-silver  print 

23V4  X  20'  4  in.  ( 59.1  X  51.4  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

Noah  Purifoy 

United  States,  b.  1917 

Sir  Watts  II,  1996  (replication  of  lost  original, 

Sir  Watts,  1966) 

Mixed  media 

34  X  30  in.  (86.4  X  76.2  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift 

of  the  Collector's  Gallery 

p.  222 

Marcos  Ramirez  £RRE 

Mexico,  active  United  States,  b.  1961 

Toy  an  Horse,  1997 

Photo  documentation  of  public  sculpture 
at  United  States-Tijuana  border  crossing, 
transferred  to  videotape  for  this  exhibition 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Alfredo  Ramos  Martfnez 

Mexico,  active  United  States  and  Mexico, 
1872-1946 

Aztec  Profile,  1932 

Conte  crayon  on  newsprint 

20%  X  I5y8  in.  (53  X  39.7  cm) 

Private  collection,  courtesy  Louis  Stern  Gallery 

Woman  with  Fruit,  1933 
Charcoal  and  tempera  on  newsprint 
22%  X  leVs  in.  (57.5  X  42.2  cm) 
Mimi  Rogers 
p.  139 

Susan  Ronkaitis 

United  States,  b.  1949 

#15 

From  the  Ravine  Series,  1981 

Gelatin-silver  print,  toned 

I3y4  X  11  in.  (34.9  X  27.9  cm) 

LACMA,  promised  gift  of  an  anonymous  donor, 

Los  Angeles 

Armando  Rascon 

United  States,  b.  1956 

Border  Metamorphosis:  The  Binational  Mural 

Project,  c.  1998 

Videotape  documentation  (color,  with  sound, 

fifteen  minutes)  of  art  project  in  Calexico, 

California,  and  Mexicali,  Baja  California 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  267 


Alan  Rath 

United  States,  b.  1959 

Watcher,  1998 

Cathode-ray  tubes,  aluminum,  and  electronics 

24  X  42  x  13  in.  (61  x  106.7  X  33  cm) 

Private  collection.  La  lolla 

Charles  Ray 

United  States,  b.  1953 

Male  Mannequin,  1990 

Fiberglass  mannequin 

73 '/2  X  15  X  14  in.  (186.7  X  .^8.1  X  35.6  cm) 

The  Broad  Art  Foundation,  Santa  Monica 

p.  259 

Joe  Ray 

United  States,  b.  1944 

Untitled,  1970-72 
Thirty-one  gelatin-silver  prints 
Overall:  52  x  52  in.  (132.1  x  132.1  cm) 
LACMA,  Modern  and  Contemporary 
Art  Council,  Young  Talent  Award 
p.  200 

Granville  Redmond 

United  States,  1871-1935 

By  the  Sea,  c.  1910 

Oil  on  canvas 

12  X  16  in.  (30.5  X  40.6  cm) 

Collection  of  Joseph  L.  Moure 

California  Poppy  Field,  n.d. 
Oil  on  canvas 

40 '/4  X  60 Vi  in.  (102.2  X  153  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Raymond  Griffith 
pp.  78-79 

Charles  Reiffel 

United  States,  1862-1942 

Late  Afternoon  Glow,  c.  1925 

Oil  on  canvas 

34  X  37  in.  (86.4  X  94  cm) 

Masterpiece  Gallery 

p.  122 


Frederick  Hurten  Rhead 

England,  active  United  States,  1 


D-1942 


Footed  Bowl,  c.  1915 

Earthenware 

h:  3%  in.  (9.5  cm);  d:  10%  in.  (26.2  cm) 

LACMA,  Art  Museum  Council  Fund 


Jason  Rhoades 

United  States,  b.  1965 
Jorge  Pardo 

CAiba,  active  United  States,  b.  1963 

#1  NAFTA  Bench,  1996 

Marble,  plywood,  three  plastic  buckets,  eight 

plastic  lids,  fabric  pillow,  vinyl-covered  cushion, 

pvc  plastic  pipes,  clamps,  and  battery-operated 

vibrator 

Bench:  28  x  144  x  28  in.  (71.1  x  365.8  x  71.1  cm); 

Horse  leg  d:  55  x  5  in.  (139.7  x  12.7  cm) 

Collection  of  Rosa  and  Carlos  de  la  Cruz 

p.  269 

William  S.  Rice 

United  States,  1873-1963 

Chinatown — Monterey,  1903 

Watercolor  on  paper 

10  x  16 '/4  in.  (25.4  x  41.3  cm) 

From  the  collection  of  Roberta  Rice  Treseder 

John  Hubbard  Rich 

United  States,  1876-1954 

Madam  Yup  See,  c.  1919 

Oil  on  canvas 

36  X28  in.  (91.4  X  71.1  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Mrs.  Ruth  Rich  and 

the  Kenneth  C.  Rich  Sr.  Family 

Rigo 

Portugal,  active  United  States,  b.  1966 

One  Tree,  1999 

Photo  documentation,  transferred  to  videotape 

for  this  exhibition 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Faith  Ringgold 

United  States,  b.  1930 

Double  Dutch  on  the  Golden  Gate  Bridge,  1988 

Acrylic  on  canvas  and  printed,  dyed,  and 

pieced  fabric 

68 '/2  X  68'/2  in.  (174  x  174  cm) 

Private  collection 

p.  242 

Diego  Rivera 

Mexico,  active  France,  Mexico,  and 
United  States,  1886-1957 

Study  for  "Allegory  of  California"  (also  known  as 

"Riches  of  California"  j,  mural  in  Stock  Exchange 

Building,  San  Francisco,  1931 

Graphite  on  paper 

24%  x  19  in.  (62.9  x  48.3  cm) 

Collection  of  Lisa  and  Douglas  Goldman 

p.  138 


A.J.  Roberts 

Active  United  States,  1910S-1930 
For  San  Diego  Decorating  Company, 
United  States,  c.  1913 

Fanciful  Interpretation  of  What  the  Panama- 
California  Exposition  Would  Look  Like,  c.  1913 
Oil  on  board 

48  X  84  in.  (121.9  X  213.3  cm) 
San  Diego  Historical  Society,  gift  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Cuchna,  1986 

Fred  H.  Robertson 

United  States,  1868-1952 

Vase,  c.  1915 

Stoneware 

h:  6  "/16  in.  (17.1  cm);  d:  }¥*  in.  ( 9.5  cm) 

LACMA,  Art  Museum  Council  Fund 

Frank  Romero 

United  States,  b.  1941 

Freeway  Wars,  c.  1987 

Oil  on  canvas 

63 '/i  X  75  in.  (161.3  X  190.5  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Franci  Seiniger 

Guy  Rose 

United  States,  1867-1925 

The  Old  Oak  Tree,  c.  1916 

Oil  on  canvas 

29%  X  28 '4  in.  (75.9  X  71.8  cm) 

Edenhurst  Gallery 

p.  68 

Carrnel  Dunes,  c.  1918-20 

Oil  on  canvas 

24 '/16  X  29V16  in.  (61.2  X  73.8  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Reese  H.  Taylor 

P-77 

Martha  Rosier 

United  States 

Semiotics  of  the  Kitchen,  1975 
Videotape  (black  and  white,  with  sound, 
six  minutes) 
Lent  by  Video  Data  Bank 

Ed  Rossbach 

United  States,  b.  1914 

Constructed  Color,  1965 

Synthetic  raffia  braiding 

57x71  in.  (144.8x180.3  cm) 

The  Museum  of  Modern  Art,  New  York, 

Purchase 


Erika  Rothenberg 

United  States 

America's  Joyous  Future,  1990 

Plexiglas  and  aluminum  display  case  with 

plastic  letters 

36  x  24  X  iVa  in.  ( 91.4  X  61  x  7  cm) 

Robert  and  Mary  Looker 

p.  255 

Jerry  Rothman 

United  States,  b.  1933 

Sky  Pot,  i960 

Stoneware 

28 '/2  X  25  in.  (72.4  X  63.5  cm) 

Scripps  College,  Claremont,  California, 

gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Marer 

Michael  Rotondi 

United  States,  b.  1949 
Clark  Stevens 

United  States,  b.  1963 

RoTo  Architects,  Inc.,  United  States, 

founded  1991 

Carlson-Reges  House,  Los  Angeles,  Composite, 

1990 

Mixed  media  on  digital  print 

60  X  36  in.  (152.4  X  91.4  cm) 

Lent  by  RoTo  Architects  Inc. 

Ross  Rude  I 

United  States,  b.  i960 

Untitled  #128, 1993 

Stained  wood 

h:  6  in.  (15.2  cm);  d:  17  in.  (43.2  cm) 

Collection  of  Morris  T.  Grabie  and  Sherry 

Latt  Lowy 

Allen  Ruppersberg 

United  States,  b.  1944 

AVs  Cafe,  1969 

Photo  and  audio  documentation  of  installa- 
tion/performance in  downtown  Los  Angeles, 
transferred  to  videotape  for  this  exhibition 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Edward  Ruscha 

United  States,  b.  1937 

Joe,  c.  1962 

Oil  on  paper 

12  X  12  in.  (30.5  X  30.5  cm) 

Joe  Goode 

Twenty-Six  Gasoline  Stations,  1962 

Artists  book  with  photomechanical 

reproductions 

Book  closed:  7  x  5'/2  in.  (17.8  x  14  cm) 

LACMA,  Balch  Library  Acquisition  Fund 


Burning  Gas  Station,  1965-66 

Oil  on  canvas 

21%  x  391/8  in.  (55.2  X  99.4  cm) 

Collection  of  Vicki  and  Kent  Logan, 

San  Francisco 

P-37 

Every  Building  on  the  Sunset  Strip,  1966 
Artists  book  (accordion  fold)  with 
photomechanical  reproductions 
Book  closed:  yVs  x  sVs  in.  (18.1  x  14.3  cm) 
LACMA,  Balch  Library,  Special  Collections 

Standard  Station,  1966 

Screenprint 

26 '/4  X  40 Vi  in.  (66.7  X  102.2  cm) 

LACMA,  Museum  Acquisition  Fund 

p.  202 

Thirty-Two  Parking  Lots  in  Los  Angeles,  1967 

Artists  book  with  photomechanical 

reproductions 

Book  closed:  10  x  8  in.  (25.4  x  20.3  cm) 

LACMA,  Balch  Library  Acquisition  Fund 

Hollywood,  1968 

Color  screenprint 

i7'/2  X  44 '/2  in.  (44.5  x  113  cm) 

LACMA,  Museum  Acquisition  Fund 

p.  201 

Edward  Ruscha 

United  States,  b.  1937 
Mason  Williams 
United  States,  b.  1938 
Patrick  Blackwell 

United  States,  b.  1935 

Royal  Road  Test,  1966 

Artists  book  (spiral  bound)  with 

photomechanical  reproductions 

Book  closed:  9'/2  x  6 '4  in.  (24.1  x  15.9  cm) 

LACMA,  Library  Acquisitions  Fund 

Alison  Soar 

United  States,  b.  1956 

Topsy  Turvy,  1999 

Wood,  tar,  plaster,  fabric,  and  ceiling  tin 

43  X  14  X  9  in.  (109.2  X  35.6  X  22.9  cm) 

Smith  College  Museum  of  Art,  Northampton, 

Massachusetts,  purchased  with  the  Janet 

Wright  Ketcham,  class  of  1953,  Fund  and  the 

Kathleen  Compton  Sherrerd,  class  of  1954, 

Fund  for  American  Art 

p.  264 


Betye  Saar 

United  States,  b.  1926 

The  Liberation  of  Aunt  Jetiiiiiia,  1972 

Mixed-media  assemblage 

iiy4  X  8  X  2%  in.  (29.8  X  20.3  X  7  cm) 

UC  Berkeley,  Art  Museum,  purchased  with  the 

aid  of  funds  from  the  National  Endowment  for 

the  Arts 

p.  222 

Ben  Sakoguchi 

United  States,  b.  1938 

Atomic  Brand,  1975-81 

Acrylic  on  canvas 

10  X  11  in.  (25.4  X  27.9  cm) 

Collection  of  Patricia  S.  Cornelius 

Capitalist  Art  Brand,  1975-81 
Acrylic  on  canvas 
10  X  11  in.  (25.4  X  27.9  cm) 
Collection  of  Philip  Cornelius 
p.  196 

Furs  for  M'Lady  Brand,  1975-81 
Acrylic  on  canvas 
10  X  11  in.  (25.4x27.9  cm) 
Collection  of  Michelle  Montgomery 
and  David  Kent 

Paul  Sample 

United  States,  1896-1974 

Celebration,  1933 

Oil  on  canvas 

40  X  48  in.  (101.6  X  121.9  cm) 

Paula  and  Irving  Click 

p.  121 

Sandoval 

United  States,  dates  unknown 

Drop  Leaf  Desk,  c.  1934-36 
Carved  mahogany 
21x50  in.  (53.3  X127  cm) 
Courtesy  Robert  Bijou  Fine  Arts 

J.  T.  Sata 

Japan,  active  United  States,  1896-1975 

Untitled  (Portrait),  1928 

Gelatin-silver  print 

7x9  in.  (17.8x22.9  cm) 

Collection  of  Frank  T.  Sata,  Pasadena 

P-137 

Adrian  Saxe 

United  States,  b.  1943 

Elvis/Lives,  1990 

Porcelain,  lusters,  quartz  crystals,  wood, 

and  silver  leaf 

32  X  52  in.  (81.3  X  132.1  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  gift  of 

the  William  F.  and  Helen  S.  Reichel  Trust 


Miriam  Schapiro 

United  States,  b.  1923 

Night  Shade,  1986 

Acrylic  and  fabric  collage  on  canvas 

48  X  96  in.  (129.9  X  243.8  cm) 

Collection  of  Frank  Miceli 

p.  231 

Rudolph  Schindler 

Austria,  active  United  States,  1887-1953 

Lighting  Fixture  from  the  Wolfe  Commission. 

Avalon,  Catalina  Island,  1928-29,  reproduction 

1997 

Wood  and  glass,  with  electrical  cord 

5  X  12  in.  (12.7  X  30.5  cm) 

Modern  ica 

Milton  Shep  Residence  [Project],  Los  Angeles, 
Perspective  Elevation,  1934-35 
Colored  pencil  on  paper 
22%  X  32%  in.  (57.5  X  83.2  cm) 
Architecture  and  Design  Collection, 
University  Art  Museum,  ucsb 
p.  110 

Armchair  and  Ottoman  from  the  Shep 
Commission,  Los  Angeles,  1936-38 
Gumwood  and  wool  upholstery  (replaced) 
2574  X  33'/2  X  35V2  in.  (65.4  X  85.1  x  90.2  cm); 
25  X  25  X  i2'/2  in.  (63.5  X  63.5  X  31.8  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Ruth  Shep  Polen 
p.  Ill 

Bedroom  Dresser  with  Hinged  Half-Round 

Mirror  and  Stool  from  the  Shep  Commission, 

Los  Angeles,  1936-38 

Gumwood,  mirror,  and  wool  upholstery 

(replaced) 

Overall:  7oy4  x  105  in.  (179.7  x  266.7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Ruth  Shep  Polen 

p.  Ill 

Dining  Table  with  Folding  Top  from  the  Shep 

Commission,  Los  Angeles,  1936-38 

Gumwood  and  metal 

36  X  47'/2  in.,  opens  to  36  x  89  in. 

(91.4  x  120.7  cm,  opens  to  91.4  x  226.1  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Ruth  Shep  Polen 

Large  Storage  Chest  from  the  Shep  Commission, 

Los  Angeles,  1936-38 

Gumwood  and  glass  top 

l:  105  in.  (266.7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Ruth  Shep  Polen 

Radio  End  Table  from  the  Shep  Commission, 

Los  Angeles,  1936-38 

Gumwood,  glass  (two  pieces),  and  radio  inset 

22  x  26  in.  (55.9  x66  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Ruth  Shep  Polen 


Three-Section  Sofa  from  the  Shep  Commission, 
Los  Angeles,  1936-38 

Gumwood  and  wool  upholstery  (replaced) 
Overall:  27  x  85  in.  (68.6  x  215.9  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Ruth  Shep  Polen 

Pair  of  Dining  Chairs  with  Backs  from  the  Shep 
Commission,  Los  Angeles,  1936-38 
Gumwood  and  wool  upholstery  (replaced) 
Each:  29  x  18  in.  (73.7  x  45.7  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Ruth  Shep  Polen 

Palmer Schoppe 

United  States,  b.  1912 

Drum,  Trombone,  and  Bass,  1942 

Gouache  and  pencil  on  paper 

16  X  22  in.  (40.7  X  55.9  cm) 

Nora  Eccles  Harrison  Museum  of  Art, 

Purchase:  The  Charter  Member  Endowment 

Fund 

p.  183 

Frederick  J.  Schwankovsky 

United  States,  1885-1974 

Woman  at  the  Piano,  c.  1925 

Oil  on  canvas 

26  x  201/4  in.  (66  x  51.4  cm) 

lam/ocma  Art  Collection  Trust, 

gift  of  the  artist 

p.  87 

Eduardo  Scott 

United  States,  1897-1925 

San  Francisco  Embarcadero,  1924 

Black  crayon  and  graphite  on  wove  paper 

21 '/16  X  26  y4  in.  (53.5  X  68  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

Achenbach  Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts, 

Museum  Purchase 

llene  Segalove 

United  States,  b.  1950 

Why  I  Got  into  TV  and  Other  Stories,  1983 
Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  ten  minutes) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Kay  Sekimachi 

United  States,  b.  1926 

Nagare  (Flow)  lU,  1968 

Nylon  monofilament,  four-layered  weave 

and  tubular  weave 

87  X  15  in.  (221  X  38.1  cm) 

American  Craft  Museum,  New  York.  Gift  of  the 

Johnson  Wax  Company 


Allan  Sekula 

United  States,  b.  1951 

Twentieth  Century  Fox  Set  for  "Titanic"  and 

Mussel  Gatherers,  Popotla,  Baja  California 

(diptych) 

From  Dead  Letter  Office,  1997 

Two  silver  dye-bleach  (Ilfochrome)  prints 

25  X  66  in.  (63.5  X  167.6  cm) 

Courtesy  Christopher  Grimes  Gallery, 

Santa  Monica,  California 

Jim  Shaw 

United  States,  b.  1952 

Beach  Boys  Weekend,  1988 
Pencil  on  paper 
17x14  in.  (43.2x35.6  cm) 
Collection  Barry  Sloane 

Charles  Sheeler 

United  States,  1883-1965 

California  Industrial,  1957 
Oil  on  canvas 
25  X  33  in.  (63.5  X  83.8  cm) 
Richard  York  Gallery,  New  York 
p.  164 

Millard  Sheets 

United  States,  1907-1989 

Angel's  Flight,  1931 

Oil  on  canvas 

50'/4  X  40  in.  (127.6  X  101.6  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Mrs.  L.  M.  Maitland 

p.  104 

Old  Mill,  Big  Sur,  1933 
Watercolor  on  paper 
22  X30  in.  (55.9  X  76.2  cm) 
The  E.  Gene  Grain  Collection 

California,  c.  1935 

Oil  on  canvas 

30  X  40  in.  (76.2  X  101.6  cm) 

The  Fieldstone  Collection 

p.  116 

Migratory  Camp  near  Nipomo,  1936 
Watercolor  on  paper 
16 '/2  X  23  in.  (41.9  X  58.4  cm) 
The  Michael  Johnson  Collection 
p.  120 

Readying  Pan  Am  Clipper  Flight,  1936 

Watercolor  on  paper 

15  X  22  in.  (38.1  X  55.9  cm) 

The  McClelland  Collection 

Working  Carrots,  Imperial  Valley,  1936 
Watercolor  on  paper 
131/2x21  in.  (34.3x53.3  cm) 
The  Michael  lohnson  Collection 


Bonnie  Sherk 

United  States 

Portable  Park  I-III,  1970 
Videotape  excerpt  (color,  with  sound, 
eight  minutes) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Kaye  Shimojima 

Japan,  active  United  States,  active  1920S-30S 

Edge  of  the  Pond,  c.  1928 
Gelatin-silver  print 
13%6  X  io'/2  in.  (34.1  X  26.7  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Karl  Struss 
p.  125 

Billy  Shire 

United  States,  b.  1951 

Untitled  Denim  Jacket,  1973 
Denim,  metallic  studs,  paste  stones, 
and  attached  metallic  objects 
cb:  26 '/2  in.  (67.3  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 
p.  218 

Peter  Shire 

United  States,  b.  1947 

Mexican  Bauhaus  (Teapot),  1980 
Ceramic,  glazed 
81/2  X  15%  in.  (21.6  X  40.3  cm) 
Courtesy  Frank  Lloyd  Gallery 

Henrietta  Shore 

Canada,  active  United  States,  1880-1963 

Women  of  Oaxaca,  c.  1925-35 

Chalk  on  paper 

i9'/2  X  24'/8  in.  (49.5  X  61.3  cm) 

The  Mitchell  Wolfson  Jr.  Collection,  The 

Wolfsonian,  Florida  International  University, 

Miami  Beach,  Florida 

Untitled  (Cypress  Trees,  Point  Lobos),  c.  1930 

Oil  on  canvas 

30 '/4  X  26 '4  in.  (76.8  X  66.7  cm) 

Private  collection 

p.  125 

The  Artichoke  Pickers,  1936-37 

Oil  on  canvas 

29  X  74  in.  (73.7  X  188  cm) 

State  Museum  Resource  Center,  California 

Department  of  Parks  and  Recreation 

Julius  Shulman 

United  States,  b.  1910 

Case  Study  House  #8,  1950 

Gelatin-silver  print 

5  X  4  in.  (12.7  X  10.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Craig  Krull  Gallery, 

Santa  Monica 


Lovell  "Health"  House,  1950 

Gelatin-silver  print 

4x5  in.  (10.2  X  12.7  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Craig  Krull  Gallery, 

Santa  Monica 

p.  109 

Case  Study  House  #22, 1958 

Gelatin-silver  print 

10  X  8  in.  (25.4  X  20.3  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Craig  Krull  Gallery, 

Santa  Monica 

Chuey  House,  1958 
Gelatin-silver  print 

10  X  8  in.  (25.4  X  20.3  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Craig  Krull  Gallery, 
Santa  Monica 

Case  Study  House  #22,  i960,  printed  later 

Gelatin-silver  print 

14x11  in.  (35.6  X27.9  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Craig  Krull  Gallery, 

Santa  Monica 

p.  160 

Singleton  House,  i960 

Gelatin-silver  print 

5  X  4  in.  (12.7  X  10.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Craig  Krull  Gallery, 

Santa  Monica 

Ernest  Silva 

United  States,  b.  1948 

Deer  on  a  Raft — Rough  Water, 

Long  journey,  1991 

Oil  on  canvas 

30  X  36  in.  (76.2  X  91.4  cm) 

Dr.  Charles  C.  and  Sue  K.  Edwards 

Larry  Silver 

United  States,  b.  1934 

Contestants,  Muscle  Beach,  California,  1954 
Gelatin-silver  print 

11  X14  in.  (27.9  X35.6  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Bruce  Silverstein 
P- 173 

Handstand,  1954 
Gelatin-silver  print 
14  X  11  in.  (35.6  X  27.9  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Bruce  Silverstein 

Newsboy  Holding  Papers,  1954 

Gelatin-silver  print 

11  X 14  in.  (27.9  X  35.6  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Bruce  Silverstein 

P-159 


Burr  Singer 

United  States,  1912-1992 

Only  on  Thursday,  1940 

Watercolor  on  paper 

Framed:  a4'/2  x  i/'/i  in.  (36.9  x  44.5  cm) 

lohn  Tolbert 

David  Alfaro  Siqueiros 

Mexico,  active  Mexico  and  United  States, 
1896-1975 

"The  Warriors,"  study  for  "Tropical  America" 

mural,  Los  Angeles,  c.  1932 

Graphite  and  ink  on  paper 

18%  x  22y4  in.  (47.6  x  57.8  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art,  Albert 

M.  Bender  Collection,  gift  of  Albert  M.  Bender 

P-139 

Rex  Slinkard 

United  States,  1887-1918 

Infinite,  c.  1915-16 

Oil  on  canvas 

291/2  X 331/2  in.  (74.9  x  85.1  cm) 

Iris  and  B.  Gerald  Cantor  Center 

for  Visual  Arts  at  Stanford  University, 

bequest  of  Florence  Williams 

p.  85 

Alexis  Smith 

United  States,  b.  1949 

Christmas  Eve,  1943,  #27,  Coconut  Grove,  1982 

Mixed-media  collage 

21 '4  X  18 "/2  in.  (54  X  47  cm) 

The  Museum  of  Contemporary  Art, 

Los  Angeles,  gift  of  Robert  B.  Egelston 

Madame  X,  1982 

Mixed-media  collage 

21  ys  X  18 V2  in.  (54.3  X  47  cm) 

Collection  of  Richard  Rosenzweig 

and  Judy  Henning 

p.  254 

Sea  of  Tranquility,  1982 
Mixed-media  collage 
20%  x  17%  x  i'/2  in.  (51.8  X  44.8  X  3.8  cm) 
LACMA,  purchased  vv'ith  funds  provided 
by  James  Burrows,  Jerry  and  Joy  Monkarsh, 
Stanley  and  Elyse  Grinstein,  Laura  S.  Maslon, 
and  Terri  and  Michael  Smooke 
p.  26 

Wild  Life,  1985 

Mixed-media  collage 

i8'/2  X  i6y8  X  21/2  in.  (47  X  41.6  x  6.4  cm) 

Santa  Barbara  Museum  of  Art,  gift  of 

Bruce  Murkoff 


Barbara  Smith 

United  States,  b.  1931 

Ritual  Meal,  1969 

Excerpt  from  16  mm  film  (black  and  white, 

with  sound,  twelve  minutes)  by  William 

Ransom  and  Smith  of  performance  event  in 

Brentwood,  California 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Christina  y.  Smith 

United  States,  b.  1951 

The  Commitment,  1997 

Sterling  silver 

10  x  9  X  6  in.  (25.4  X  22.9  X  15.2  cm) 

Collection  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  David  Charak 

p.  259 

Sixteen  Years,  1997 

Sterling  silver 

10  X  7y4  in.  (25.4  X  19.7  cm) 

Collection  of  Margery  and  Maurice  Katz 

Elizabeth  Paige  Smith 

United  States,  b.  1968 

Curve  Coffee  Table,  1998 

Resin-coated  balsa  wood 

and  powder-coated  steel 

42  X  35  in.  (106.7  X  88.9  cm) 

Jenny  Armit  Design  and  Decorative  Art,  Inc. 

Harry  Smith 

United  States,  1923-1991 

Film  No.  7, 1952 

16  mm  film  (color,  without  sound, 

six  minutes) 

Lent  by  Dr.  William  Moritz 

Paul  Soldner 

United  States,  b.  1921 

Floor  Pot,  1959 

Stoneware,  glazed 

h:  55  in.  (139.7  cm);  d:  12  in.  (30.5  cm) 

Collection  of  Doug  and  Joelle  Lawrie 

Travis  Somerville 

United  States,  b.  1963 

Untitled  (Dixie),  1998 

Oil  and  collage  on  ledger  paper 

60  X  41  in.  (152.4  X  104.1  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco, 

Achenbach  Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts, 

Museum  Purchase,  Wallace  Anderson  Gerbode 

Foundation  Grant 

p.  262 


John  Sonsini 

United  States,  b.  1950 

Mad  Dog  "Andreas"  Maines,  1995 

Oil  on  canvas 

67  X  48  in.  ( 170.2  X  121.9  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  257 

Peter  Stackpole 

United  States,  1913-1997 

The  Lone  Riveter,  1935 

Gelatin-silver  print 

9y4  X  6'yi6  in.  (24.8  X  15.75  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art, 

Gift  of  Ursula  Cropper 

p.  107 

Robert  Stacy-Judd 

England,  active  United  States,  1884-1975 

The  Aztec  Hotel,  Monrovia,  Front  Elevation, 

Right  Section,  1924-25 

Pastel  on  paper 

30  X  48  in.  (76.2  X  121.9  cm) 

Architecture  and  Design  Collection, 

University  Art  Museum,  ucsb 

Frances  Stark 

United  States,  b.  1967 

...a  rainbow,  1997 

Carbon,  water,  oil  crayon,  and  papers 

50  X  381/2  in.  (127  X  97.8  cm) 

LACMA,  Modern  and  Contemporary  Art 

Council,  1997  Art  Here  and  Now  Purchase 

Linda  Stark 

United  States,  b.  1956 

Be  Mine,  1994-95 

Oil  on  canvas  on  panel 

131/2  X  13 1/2  in.  (34.3  X  34.3  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided 

by  the  Marvin  B.  Meyer  Family  Endowment 

in  memory  of  Nan  Uhlmann  Meyer 

Joel  Sternfeld 

United  States,  b.  1944 

After  a  Flash  Flood,  Rancho  Mirage, 

California,  1979 

Chromogenic  development  print 

24  X  20  in.  (61  X  50.8  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  the  artist 

p.  240 


Lou  Stoumen 

United  States,  1917-1991 

Tenements  of  Bunker  Hill,  1948 

Gelatin-silver  print 

n  X  14  in.  (27.9  X35.6  cm) 

The  Collection  of  the  Law  Firm  of  Latham 

and  Watkins 

p.  167 

Karl  Struss 

United  States,  1886-1981 

Monterey  Coast,  1910-15 

Gelatin-silver  print 

4^16  X  3%  in.  (11.5  X  9.2  cm) 

The  J.  Paul  Getty  Museum,  Los  Angeles 

p.  84 

John  Sturgeon 

United  States,  b.  1946 

Spine/Time,  1982 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  twenty  minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Henry  Sugimoto 

lapan,  active  United  States,  1900-1990 

Mother  in  Jerome  Camp,  1943 

Oil  on  canvas 

22x18  in.  (55.9  X  45.7  cm) 

Japanese  American  National  Museum,  gift 

of  Madeleine  Sugimoto  and  Naomi  Tagawa 

P-155 

Self-Portrait  in  Camp,  1943 

Oil  on  canvas 

23  X18  in.  (58.4  X  45.7  cm) 

Japanese  American  National  Museum,  gift 

of  Madeleine  Sugimoto  and  Naomi  Tagawa 

Elza  Sunderland 

Hungary,  active  United  States,  b.  1903 

Woman's  Two-Piece  Playsuit,  c.  1940 

Printed  cotton 

Top  l:  16  V2  in.  (41.9  cm);  Shorts  cb:  18  in. 

(45-7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jon  Gluckman 

p.  141 

Untitled  Textile  Design,  c.  1941 
Gouache  on  paper 
19  X  i6'/2  in.  (48.3  X  41.9  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  the  artist 

Textile  Design,  Loquats  and  Taro  Vine,  c.  1945 

Gouache  on  board 

18  X  22  in.  (45.7  X  55.9  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  the  artist 


Charles  Surendorf 

United  States,  1906-1979 

Chinatown  Shineboys,  c.  1939 

Wood  engraving 

10 '/2  X  jVfi  in.  (26.7  X  18.8  cm) 

United  States  Government  Treasury 

Department,  Public  Works  of  Art  Project, 

Washington,  D.C.,  on  permanent  loan 

to  LACMA 

Mitchell  Syrop 

United  States,  b.  1953 

Routine  Reorganization,  1986 
Mounted  photo-mural  paper 
40  X  26 '/2  in.  (101.6  X  67.3  cm) 
LACMA,  anonymous  gift 

Second  Nature,  1986 
Mounted  photo-mural  paper 
40  X  26 '/2  in.  (101.6  X  67.3  cm) 
LACMA,  anonymous  gift 

Lagardo  Tackett 

United  States 

For  Architectural  Pottery,  United  States, 

1951-89 

Untitled  [Three  Stacked  Sculptures],  c.  i960 

Ceramic,  glazed 

h:  66  in.  (167.6  cm),  d:  12  in.  (30.5  cm); 

h:  99  in.  (251.5  cm),  d:  13  in.  (33  cm);  h:  52  in. 

(132.1  cm),  d:  25  in.  (63.5  cm) 

Collection  of  Max  Lawrence,  Los  Angeles 

p.  163 

Hourglass  Planter  (Model  T-120),  n.d. 
Ceramic,  matte  white  glaze 
h:  20  in.  (50.8  cm);  d:  io'/2  in.  (26.7  cm) 
Anonymous  lender 

Planter  (Model  L-20),  n.d. 

Ceramic,  matte  white  glaze 

h:  20  in.  (50.8  cm);  d:  i3'/2  in.  (34.3  cm) 

Anonymous  lender 

Henry  Takemoto 

United  States,  b.  1930 

Flag,  i960 

Stoneware,  glazed 

36%  X  26  in.  (93.4  X  66  cm) 

Scripps  College,  Claremont,  California, 

gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Marer 

Janice  Tanaka 

United  States 

Memories  from  the  Department  of  Amnesia, 

1989-91 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  twelve  minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artist 


Max  Tatch 

United  States,  1898-1963 

Los  Angeles,  1937 
Gelatin-silver  print 

11  xi4in.  (27.9  X35.6  cm) 

Sid  Avery/ Motion  Picture  and  Television 

Photo  Archive 

Gage  Taylor 

United  States,  b.  1942 

Mescaline  Woods,  1969 

Oil  on  canvas 

26'/4  x30'/2  in.  (66.7  X  77.5  cm) 

The  Haggin  Museum,  Stockton,  California 

p.  217 

Harold  A.  Taylor 

United  States,  1878-1960 

Going  from  Mass,  San  Juan  Capistrano 

From  the  book  For  the  Soul  of  Raphael,  c.  1920 

Gelatin-silver  print 

i2'/4  X  9%  in.  (31.1  X  25.1  cm) 

Smith  College  Museum  of  Art,  Northampton, 

Massachusetts,  purchased  with  the  Hillyer- 

Tryon-Mather  Fund,  with  fiinds  given  in 

memory  of  Nancy  Newhall  (Nancy  Parker,  class 

of  1938)  and  in  honor  of  Beaumont  Newhall, 

and  with  funds  given  in  honor  of  Ruth 

Wedgwood  Kennedy 

Masami  Teraoka 

Japan,  active  United  States,  b.  1936 

Geisha  and  aids  Nightmare,  1990 

Watercolor  on  paper 

106 1/4  X74in.  (269.9  X188  cm) 

Catharine  Clark  Gallery 

p.  256 

Edmund  Teske 

United  States,  1911-1996 

Untitled,  1962 

Gelatin-silver  print  with  duotone  solarization 

13%  X  10^/4  in.  (34.6  X  27.3  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

p.  215 

Robert  Therrien 

United  States,  b.  1947 

No  Title  (Snowman),  1983-84 

Silver  on  cast  bronze 

h:  36  in.  (91.4  cm);  d:  16  in.  (40.6  cm) 

Collection  Teresa  Bjornson,  Los  Angeles 


Wayne  Thiebaud 

United  States,  h.  1920 

Down  Mariposa,  1979 

From  the  portfolio  Recent  Etchingi  I,  pi.  3 

Etching 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco,  Crown 

Point  Press  Archive,  gift  of  Kathan  Brown 

p.  198 

Dorothy  Thorp 

United  States 

Platter  (from  Tea  Service),  c.  1930 
Etched  glass 

h:  2V2  in.  (6.4  cm);  d:  24  in.  (61  cm) 
Courtesy  Anne  and  Marvin  H.  Cohen 

Tom  of  Finland  [Touko  Laaksonen] 

Finland,  active  United  States,  1920-1991 

Untitled,  1962 

Graphite  on  paper 

11%  X  8'/4  in.  (29.9  X  21  cm) 

Collection  Tom  of  Finland  Foundation, 

Los  Angeles, 

p.  219 

Untitled,  1962 

Graphite  on  paper 

11%  X  8V4  in.  (29.9  X  21  cm) 

Collection  Tom  of  Finland  Foundation, 

Los  Angeles 

FredTomaselli 

United  States,  b.  1956 

Booth  for  Isolation  or  Romance,  1988-95 

Mixed  wood,  Plexiglas,  Formica,  metal,  enamel, 

and  sea  grass 

85  x  37  X  38V2  in.  (215.9  X  94  x  97.8  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Christopher 

Grimes  Gallery 

Salvador  Roberto  Torres 

United  States,  b.  1936 

Viva  La  Raza,  1969 

Oil  on  canvas 

53  X  42  in.  (134.6  X  106.7  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  225 

Channel  P.  Townsley 

United  States,  1867-1921 

Mission  San  Juan  Capistrano,  1916 

Oil  on  canvas 

32  X  40  in.  (81.2  X  101.6  cm) 

Joan  Irvine  Smith  Fine  Arts,  Inc., 

Laguna  Beach,  California 

p.  92 


Wesley  H.Trlppett 

United  States,  1H62-1913 

Bonbon  Box,  c.  1904-9 

Earthenware 

h:  2  in.  (5.1  cm);  d:  3'/4  in.  (8.3  cm) 

LACMA,  Art  Museum  Council  Fund 

Flower  Bowl,  c.  1904-9 

Earthenware 

h:  3  in.  (7.6  cm);  d:  ^Vz  in.  (8.9  cm) 

LACMA,  Art  Museum  Council  Fund 

Covered  Bowl,  c.  1910 

Earthenware 

H  (including  cover):  iVi  in.  (8.9  cm); 

d:  5%  in.  (8.9  cm) 

LACMA,  Art  Museum  Council  Fund 

Wing-KwongTse 

China,  active  United  States,  1902-1993 

Cup  of  Longevity,  c.  1930 
Watercolor  on  paper 
i6'/2  X  13  in.  (41.9  X  33  cm) 
The  Michael  D.  Brown  Collection 
p.  143 

Tseng  Kwong  Chi 

Hong  Kong,  active  Canada  and  United  States, 
1950-1990 

Disneyland,  California,  1979 
Gelatin-silver  print 
7'/2  X  7%  in.  (19.1  X  18.7  cm) 
LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 
p.  249 

Paul  Tuttle 

United  States,  b.  1918 

Pisces  in,  1997 

Crafted  by  Bud  Tullis 

Maple,  ApplyPly,  and  glass 

Overall:  i5'/2  x  60 '/2  in.  (39.4  x  153.7  cm) 

Architecture  and  Design  Collection,  University 

Art  Museum,  ucsb,  gift  of  Suzanne  Duca 

Tokio  Ueyama 

Japan,  active  United  States,  1889-1954 

Cove,  Monterey,  1924 

Oil  on  canvas 

32  x  40  in.  (81.3  X  101.6  cm) 

The  Michael  D.  Brown  Collection 

Underwood  and  Underwood  Publishers 

United  States,  active  1880S-1940S 

Yosemite  Valley,  1902,  printed  c.  1905 

Twenty-three  stereographic  prints  stored 

in  custom  case 

Each:  3^/2  x  7  in.  (8.9  x  17.8  cm) 

Collection  of  David  Knaus 

P-73 


Unknown  Artist 

I'Litle  Unknown:  City  Hallf  1906 
Gelatin-silver  print 
9%  X  6V8  in.  (24.4  X  15.6  cm) 
Collection  of  Mrs.  Nancy  Dubois 

[Title  Unknown:  Fire  Following  the 
Earthquake  I,  1906 
Gelatin-silver  print 
7'/i6  X  9'/2  in.  (19.3  X  24.1  cm) 
Collection  of  Mrs.  Nancy  Dubois 

[Title  Unknown:  View  from  a  Hill],  1906 
Gelatin-silver  print 
5'/4  X  gYs  in.  (13.3  x  23.8  cm) 
Collection  of  Mrs.  Nancy  Dubois 

Unknown  Artists 

Cahuilla  Basket  with  Design  of  Abstract 

Flowers,  1890-1920 

Coiled  juncus 

2%  X 14  in.  (7  x35.6  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles, 

gift  of  Miss  Margaret  A.  Feeney 

P-94 

Basket,  c.  1900 

Juncus 

h:  5'/2  (14  cm);  d:  10  in.  (25.4  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles, 

gift  of  Mr.  George  Wharton  James 

P-94 

Karok  Basket  with  Design  of  Serrated  Diamonds 

and  Triangles,  1900-1930 

Twined  willow  root,  maidenhair  fern,  and  dyed 

porcupine  quill 

4'/2  x  6V»  in.  (11.4  x  16  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles, 

gift  of  Mrs.  Caroline  Boeing  Poole 

Karok  Food  Serving  Basket,  1900-1930 

Twined  conifer  root  and  bear  grass 

3 '4  x7'/2  in.  (9.5  X19.1  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles, 

gift  of  Colonel  John  Hudson  Poole  and 

Mr.  John  Hudson  Poole  Jr. 

Pomo  Basket  with  Design  of  Stepped  Triangles, 

1900-1930 

Coiled  sedge  root  and  bracken  fern 

5V2  X  13  V2  in.  (14  X  34.3  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles, 

gift  of  Mrs.  Caroline  Boeing  Poole 

Ponw  Ceremonial  Basket  with  Design  of  Bands 

of  Triangles,  1900-1930 

Coiled  winter  redbud  shoots  and  sedge  roots 

9V4  X  16 '/2  in.  (23.5  X  41.9  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles, 

gift  of  Mrs.  Caroline  Boeing  Poole 


Yakuts  Basket  with  Design  of  Animals  and 

Geometric  Motifs,  1900-1930 

CoUed  sedge  root,  redbud  and  bracken  fern 

6%  X  10  in.  (17.2  X  25.4  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles, 

gift  of  Mrs.  Carohne  Boeing  Poole 

Porno  Basket,  c.  1930 

Coiled  sedge  root,  feathers,  clam  shell  beads, 

abalone,  and  cotton  cord 

h:  2  in.  (5.1  cm);  d:  eVi  in.  (15.9  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles, 

gift  of  Colonel  John  Hudson  Poole  and  Mr. 

John  Hudson  Poole  Jr. 

Patssi  Valdez 

United  States,  b.  1951 

The  Kitchen/La  cocina,  1988 
Acrylic  on  canvas 
48  X  36  in.  (121.9  X  91.4  cm) 
Collection  ofCurtis  M.Hill 

Manuel  Valencia 

United  States,  1856-1935 

Santa  Barbara  Mission  at  Night,  n.d. 

Oil  on  canvas 

30  X  20  in.  (76.2  X  50.8  cm) 

Courtesy  DeRu's  Fine  Arts,  Laguna  Beach 

p.  91 

Jeffrey  Val  lance 

United  States,  b.  1955 

The  Viewing  Room:  Blinky's  Coffin 

and  St.  Francis  Niche,  c.  1989 

Coffin  with  plastic  chicken  replica,  paper  towel, 

ceramic,  plaster,  acrylic,  enamel,  candle,  and 

flower  vases 

Dimensions  variable 

Collection  of  Barry  Sloane 

Deborah  Valoma 

United  States,  b.  1955 

Cunning  Comes  in  Trouble,  1998 
Waxed  linen,  woven  and  stitched 
112  X  30  in.  (284.5  X  76.2  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Willard  Van  Dyke 

United  States,  1906-1986 

Death  Valley  Dunes,  1930 

Gelatin-silver  print 

9V2  X7V2  in.  (24.1  X  19.1  cm) 

The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 

Dirk  Van  Erp  Copper  Shop 

United  States,  1908-77 

Vase,  1911 

Copper 

h:  15'/8  in.  (38.4  cm);  d:  lo'/s  in.  (25.7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Max  Palevsky 


Table  Lamp,  c.  1915 

Copper  and  mica 

h:  26  in.  (66.1  cm);  d:  19%  in.  (49.9  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Max  Palevsky 

p.  89 

Hendrick  Van  Keppel 

United  States,  1914-1987 
Taylor  Green 

United  States,  1914-1991 

Small  Chaise  and  Ottoman,  1939, 

manufactured  1959 

Enamel-baked  steel  and  cotton  cord  (replaced) 

24V2  x  21  in.  (62.2  x  53.3  cm);  12  x  21  in. 

(30.5  x  53.3  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Dan  Steen  in  remembrance 

of  Taylor  Green 

p.  163 

Garden  Table,  c.  1950 
Metal  with  wooden  slat  top 
20  Vs  X  18  in.  (51.1  X  45.7  cm) 
LACMA,  anonymous  gift 

Six-Light  Candelabra,  c.  1950 

Iron 

i2y4  X  22yi6  in.  (32.4  X  56.8  cm) 

LACMA,  anonymous  gift 

Outdoor  Candelabra,  1952-53 
Steel  with  glass 
40x24  in.  (101.6  x6i  cm) 
Collection  of  Max  Lawrence 

Sofa,  1952-53 

Steel  frame  and  vinyl  upholstery 
63  X  30  in.  (160  x  76.2  cm ) 
Collection  of  Max  Lawrence 

Wicker  Arm  Chair,  1952-53 
Steel  frame  and  wicker 
43  X  30  in.  (109.2  x  76.2  cm) 
Collection  of  Max  Lawrence 

Cabinet  from  Van  Keppel's  House,  mid-1950s 
Tropical  hardwoods,  plywood,  and  vinyl 
301/4  x  77%  in.  (76.8  X  197.5  cm) 
LACMA,  anonymous  gift 

Dining  Table  from  Van  Keppel's  House, 

mid-1950s 

Steel  frame  with  cast-resin  top 

25  X  42  in.  (63.5  X  106.7  cm) 

LACMA,  anonymous  gift 

Six  Dining  Chairs  from  Van  Keppel's  House, 

mid-1950s 

Steel  frame  with  vinyl-coated  cord 

Each:  30  x  17  in.  (76.2  x  43.2  cm) 

LACMA,  anonymous  gift 

Small  Chaise,  c.  1959 

Enamel-baked  steel  and  cotton  cord  (replaced) 

24 '/2  X  21  in.  (62.2  X  53.3  cm) 

Courtesy  Bernard  Kester 


Gustavo  Vdzques 

Mexico,  active  United  States,  b.  1954 
Guillermo  Gomez-Peria 

Mexico,  active  United  States,  b.  1955 

The  Mojado  Invasion  (The  Second  U.S.- 
Mexican War),  1999 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  twenty-six 
minutes) 
Lent  by  Video  Data  Bank 

Camilo  Jose  Vergara 

Mexico,  active  United  States  and  Mexico, 
b.  1944 

Couple  on  Their  Way  to  Church,  Watts, 

May  1980, 1980 

Silver  dye-bleach  (Cibachrome)  print 

16  X  20  in.  (40.6  X  50.8  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

p.  200 

Vernon  Kilns 

United  States,  1931-51 

Place  Settings  for  Six,  from  "Imperial 

Vernonware,"  c.  1955-56 

Earthenware 

Dinner  plate  d:  10  in.  (25.4  cm);  Salad  plate 

d:  7'/2  in.  (19.1  cm);  Soup  bowl  d:  e'/s  in. 

(15.6  cm);  Cup  d:  4%  in.  (12.1  cm);  Saucer 

d:  6'/8  in.  (15.6  cm);  Coffeepot  with  lid 

h:  io'/2  in.  (26.7  cm);  Teapot  with  lid  d:  9  in. 

(22.9  cm);  Covered  casserole  d:  9^/4  in. 

(24.8  cm);  Creamer  h:  4y4  in.  (12.1  cm);  Sugar 

bowl  with  lid  h:  4^/4  in.  (12.1  cm) 

Private  collection 

Ely  de  Vescovi 

Italy,  active  United  States  and  Mexico, 
1909-1998 

Hollywood,  1941 

Oil  on  canvas 

30  x  24  in.  ( 76.2  X  61  cm ) 

Collection  of  Donald  and  DeAnne  Todd 

p.  178 

Bill  Viola 

United  States,  b.  1951 

Anthem,  1983 

Videotape  (color,  with  sound,  twelve  minutes) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

Herman  Volz 

Switzerland,  active  United  States,  1904-1990 

San  Francisco  Waterfront  Strike,  1934 

Lithograph 

11  "a  X  16 "s  in.  (30.2  X  41  cm) 

Rob  Roberts 

p.  112 


Bernard  von  Eichman 

United  States,  1899-1970 

China  Street  Scene  No.  i,  1923 

Oil  on  cardboard 

19 V4  X  16  Vi  in.  (48.9  x  41.3  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California, 

gift  of  Louis  Siegriest 

p.  135 

Peter  Voulkos 

United  States,  b.  1924 

Camelback  Mountain,  1959 

Stoneware  with  slip,  glazed  and  gas  fired 

45V'2  X  i9'/2  in.  (115.6  x  49.5  cm) 

Collection  of  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston, 

gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stephen  D.  Paine,  1978 

p.  185 

Adam  Clark  Vroman 

United  States,  1856-1916 

San  Gabriel  Mission,  c.  1910 

Gelatin-silver  print 

6  V2  x  9'/2  in.  (16.5  X  24.1  cm) 

Collection  of  Stephen  White  II 

P-93 

Edouard  A.  Vysekal 

Czechoslovakia,  active  United  States,  1890-1939 

Springtime,  1913 

Oil  on  paper,  mounted 

30x57  in.  (76.2x144.8  cm) 

Garzoli  Gallery,  San  Rafael,  California 


Marion  (Kavanaugh)  Wachtel 

United  States,  1876-1954 

Sunset  Clouds  #5,  1904 
Watercolor  on  paper 
20  X  16  in.  (50.8  X  40.6  cm) 
Robert  and  Ann  Steiner 
p.  69 

Catherine  Wagner 

United  States,  b.  1953 

Arch  Construction  III,  George  Moscone  Site, 

San  Francisco,  California,  1981 

Gelatin-silver  print 

14  X  18  in.  ( 35.6  X  45.7  cm ) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Hal  Fischer 

Arch  Construction  IV,  George  Moscone  Site, 

San  Francisco,  California,  1981 

Gelatin-silver  print 

14  X  18  in.  (35.6  X  45.7  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Hal  Fischer 

p.  243 


Anne  Walsh 

United  States 

Two  Men  Making  Gun  Sounds,  1996 
Two-channel  video  installation 
Dimensions  variable 
Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Banff  Centre 
for  the  Arts 

June  Wayne 

United  States,  b.  1918 

Silent  Wind,  1975 
Lithograph  on  nacre  paper 
25  X  371/a  in.  (63.5  X  94.4  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Kem  Weber 

Germany,  active  United  States,  1889-1963 

Airline  Armchair,  c.  1934-35 

Hickory,  alder,  maple,  metal,  and  leather 

30 '/2  X  25  X  34  in.  (77.5  X  63.5  X  86.3  cm) 

Architecture  and  Design  Collection,  University 

Art  Museum,  ucsb 

p.  109 

James  Weeks 

United  States,  1922-1998 

Two  Musicians,  i960 

Oil  on  canvas 

84  X  66  in.  (213.4  X  167.6  cm) 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art, 

Thomas  W.  Weisel  Fund  purchase 

p.  184 

Thomas  Weir 

United  States,  b.  1935 

Renee  Oracle,  1968 

Gelatin-silver  print 

d:  9Vs  in.  (24.8  cm) 

Norton  Simon  Museum,  Pasadena,  California, 

Museum  Purchase,  1971 

Jack  Welpott 

United  States,  b.  1923 

The  Journey — Pescadero  Creek,  1966 

Gelatin-silver  print 

9'/2  X  7%  in.  (24.1  X  18.7  cm) 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California,  The 

Oakland  Museum  of  California  Founders  Fund 

P- 195 

William  Wendt 

Prussia,  active  United  States,  1865-1946 

Malibu  Coast  [Paradise  Cove],  c.  1897 

Oil  on  canvas 

18x28  in.  (45.7  X71.1  cm) 

Private  collection 

P-77 


The  Silent  Summer  Sea,  1915 
Oil  on  canvas 
25  X  30  in.  (63.5  X  76.2  cm) 
Private  collection 

Where  Nature's  God  Hath  Wrought,  1925 

Oil  on  canvas 

50^16  X  60 '/16  in.  (127.8  X  152.6  cm) 

LACMA,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Allan  C.  Balch  Collection 

p.  70 

Henry  Wessel  Jr. 

United  States,  b.  1942 

Southern  California,  1985 
Gelatin-silver  print 
lo'/s  X  i5"/i6  in.  (26.4  X  39.8  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  Lewis  Baltz 

Brett  Weston 

United  States,  1911-1993 

Garapata  Beach,  1954 

Gelatin-silver  print 

11  X  14  in.  (27.9  X  35.6  cm) 

Margaret  W.  Weston,  Weston  Gallery,  Inc. 

p.  170 

Edward  Weston 

United  States,  1886-1958 

Eel  River  Ranch,  1937 
Gelatin-silver  print 
9'/2  X  7'/2  in.  (24.1  X  19.1  cm) 
LACMA,  anonymous  gift 

Tomato  Field,  1937 

Gelatin-silver  print 

8x  10  in.  (20.3x25.4  cm) 

The  Huntington  Library,  Art  Collections 

and  Botanical  Gardens 

p.  116 

Twenty  Mule  Team  Canyon,  Death  Valley,  1938 

Gelatin-silver  print 

9'/2  x  7'/2  in.  (24.1  x  19.1  cm) 

LACMA,  anonymous  gift 

p.  124 

Drift  Stump,  Crescent  Beach,  1939 
Gelatin-silver  print 
9V2  X  7V2  in.  (24.1  X  19.1  cm) 
LACMA,  anonymous  gift 

Daniel  Wheeler 

United  States,  b.  1961 

Untitled  [Exam],  1993 

Wood,  X-ray  photograph,  glass,  and 

found  objects 

28 ys  X  18%  X  16%  in.  (72.1  X  47.9  X  41.6  cm) 

Collection  of  Michael  Simental  and  Phill  Starr, 

Los  Angeles,  courtesy  Newspace,  Los  Angeles 


Minor  White 

United  States,  1908-1976 

Song  without  Words,  1947 

Artists  book  with  twenty-three 

gelatin-silver  prints 

Book  open:  12  x  20  in.  (30.5  x  50.8  cm) 

LACMA,  Ralph  M.  Parsons  Fund 

Sun  in  Rock  (San  Mateo  County, 

California),  1947 

Gelatin-silver  print 

3'/2  X  4Vs  in.  (9  X  11.7  cm) 

The  Minor  White  Archive,  Princeton  University 

p.  187 

Pae  White 

United  States,  b.  1963 

Pantone  5115c  Pony,  1997 

Pair  of  women's  shoes  (size  10),  cowhide  and 

frog  skin 

Each:  g'/i  x  3'/2  x  6  in.  (24.1  x  8.9  x  15.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist 

James  Whitney 

United  States,  1921-1982 

Yantra,  1955 

16  mm  film  (color,  with  sound,  seven  minutes) 

Lent  by  Dr.  William  Moritz 

Ren  Wicl<s 

United  States 

Untitled  (Family  Beach  Scene),  1952 
Watercolor  on  paper 
28  X  25 '/2  in.  (71.2  x  64.8  cm) 
Automobile  Club  of  Southern  California 

Marguerite  Wildenhain 

France,  active  United  States,  1896-1985 

Squared  Vase,  c.  1947 

Stoneware,  glazed 

4^4  x  4  in.  (12.1  X  10.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Frederick  R.  Weisman  Art  Museum, 

University  of  Minnesota,  Museum  Purchase 

p.  170 

Vase,  c.  1950 

Stoneware 

S'A  X  5  in.  (14.6  X  12.7  cm) 

Lent  by  the  Frederick  R.  Weisman  Art  Museum, 

University  of  Minnesota,  gift  of  Warren  and 

Nancy  MacKenzie 

William  T.  Wiley 

United  States,  b.  1937 

Cage  and  Bait,  1976 

Watercolor  on  paper 

30  X  22  in.  (76.2  X  55.9  cm) 

The  Museum  of  Contemporary  Art, 

Los  Angeles,  gift  of  the  Melville  J.  KoUiner 

Family  Trust  in  memory  of  Beatrice  S.  Kollin 


Robert  Williams 

United  States,  b.  1943 

California  Girl,  1985 
Acrylic  on  imitation  brick 
60  X  48  in.  (152.4  X  121.9  cm) 
Collection  of  Anthony  Kiedis 
p.  251 

John  William  Joseph  Winkler 

Austria,  active  United  States,  1894-1979 

Oriental  Alley,  1920 

Etching 

7%  X  5V8  in.  (20  X  13  cm) 

The  Annex  Galleries 

P-95 

Fruit  Stall,  n.d. 

Etching 

5  x7'/i6  in.  (12.7X  18.9  cm) 

The  Annex  Galleries 

Albert  J.  Winn 

United  States,  b.  1947 

Akedah,  1995 
Gelatin-silver  print 
20  X24  in.  (50.8  X  61  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 
p.  256 

Paul  Wonner 

United  States,  b.  1920 

Untitled  [Two  Men  at  the  Shore],  c.  i960 

Oil  and  charcoal  on  canvas 

50  X  40  in.  (127  X  101.6  cm) 

Bedford  Family  Collection 

P-175 

Beatrice  Wood 

United  States,  1894-1998 

Tea  Service  with  Cups,  c.  i960 

Earthenware,  glazed 

Teapot  d:  11  in.  (27.9  cm);  Creamer  d:  5  in. 

(12.7  cm);  Open  sugar  d:  4'/2  in.  (11.4  cm); 

Four  cups  d:  41/4  in.  (10.8  cm);  Four  saucers 

d:  6  in.  (15.2  cm) 

Collection  of  Gloria  and  Sonny  Kamm 

Willard  Worden 

United  States,  1868-1946 

Untitled  [Sand  Dunesj,  c.  1915 

Gelatin-silver  print 

I3yi6  X  10%  in.  (33.9  X  27  cm) 

The  Wilson  Center  for  Photography 


Max  yavno 

United  States,  1911-1985 

Street  Talk,  1946 
Gelatin-silver  print 
8'/2  X  7'/i6  in.  (21.6  X  17.9  cm) 
LACMA,  gift  of  the  artist 
P- 153 

Muscle  Beach,  1947 

Gelatin-silver  print 

26  X  16  in.  ( 50.8  X  40.6  cm ) 

Collection  of  Sue  and  Albert  Dorskind 

P-159 

Night  View  from  Coit  Tower,  1947 

Gelatin-silver  print 

loVi  X  13%  in.  {26.7  X  34.3  cm) 

The  Marjorie  and  Leonard  Vernon  Collection 

p.  165 

The  Leg,  1949 

Gelatin-silver  print 

20  X  16  in.  ( 50.8  X  40.6  cm ) 

Collection  of  Sue  and  Albert  Dorskind 

Premiere  at  Carthay  Circle,  1949 

Gelatin-silver  print 

20  X  16  in.  (50.8  X  40.6  cm) 

LACMA,  gift  of  Sue  and  Albert  Dorskind 

Bruce  /onemoto 

United  States,  b.  1949 
Norman  /onemoto 

United  States,  b.  1946 

Golden,  1993 

Gold  leaf  on  projection  screen 

59  X  42 1/2  X  24  in.  (i49-9  X  108  x  61  cm) 

Collection  of  Eileen  and  Peter  Norton, 

Santa  Monica 

p.  262 

Liz  /oung 

United  States,  b.  1958 

The  Birth/Death  Chair  with  Rawhide  Shoes, 

Bones,  and  Organs,  1993 

Chair,  rawhide  shoes,  and  cast  iron,  bronze, 

and  lead 

48  x  84  X  36  in.  (121.9  X  213.4  X  91.4  cm) 

LACMA,  purchased  with  funds  provided  by 

the  Betty  Asher  Memorial  Fund  through  the 

Modern  and  Contemporary  Art  Council 

P-  253 

Eva  Zeisel 

Hungary,  active  Germany,  Russia, 
and  United  States,  b.  1906 

Riverside  China:  Water  lug  with  Six  Tumblers, 

Large  Serving  Bowl,  c.  1946-47 

Porcelain,  glazed 

Tumblers  h:  4Vs  in.  (10.5  cm);  lug  h:  8V4  in. 

(24.1  cm);  Bowl  d:  i4-'-4  in.  (37.5  cm) 

Private  collection 


Comnnssioned  Artworks 


Jody  Zellen 

United  States,  h.  i' 

Untitled,  1998 
Iris  print  on  Myla 
10  X  8  in.  (25.4  X  1' 
Lent  by  the  artist 


ith  Plexiglas 


Untitled,  1998 

Iris  print  on  Mylar  with  Plexiglas 
10  X  8  in.  (25.4  X  20.3  cm) 
Lent  by  the  artist 

Andrea  Zittel 

United  States,  b.  1965 

A-Z  Travel  Trailer,  1995 

Unit  customized  by  Miriam  and  Gordon  Zittel 

Trailer:  steel,  wood,  glass,  carpet,  aluminum, 

and  found  objects 

115  X  94  x  204  in.  (292.1  X  238.8  X  518.2  cm) 

Lent  by  the  artist,  courtesy  Andrea  Rosen 

Gallery,  New  York 

Marguerite  Zorach 

United  States,  1887-1968 

Man  among  the  Redwoods,  1912 
Oil  on  canvas 

25 y4  X  20  V4  in.  (65.4  X  51.4  cm) 
Curtis  Galleries,  Minneapolis 


Linking  the  two  centers  of  the  museum,  i.acma 
East  and  lacma  West,  most  of  the  works  listed 
below  were  intended  to  transform  the  entire 
campus  into  a  site  for  art.  Others  reached 
beyond  the  museum's  physical  borders  in  an 
effort  to  engage  the  larger  Los  Angeles  commu- 
nity. All  were  newly  commissioned,  except 
L'nf/f/t'rf  (Nordman),  first  conceived 
and  executed  in  1973,  refabricated  in  1995,  then 
refurbished  in  2000  for  this  exhibition,  and 
What  you  lookn  at?  (Williams),  originally 
made  in  1992,  then  refabricated  in  2000  for 
this  exhibition. 

David  Avalos 

United  States,  b.  1947 
Louis  Hock 
United  States,  b.  1948 
Scott  Kessler 
United  States,  b.  1955 
Elizabeth  Sisco 
United  States,  b.  1954 
Deborah  Small 
United  States,  b.  1948 

Oracle@LaBrea,  2000 

Video  slot  machine,  surveillance  cameras, 

and  text 

Robert  O.  Anderson  Building,  lacma  East 

Robbie  Conal 

United  States,  b.  1944 

Ghost  in  the  Machine  (The  Fifties),  2000 
Billboard  from  original  oil  on  photomontage 
LACMA-area  street 

Eileen  Cowin 

United  States,  b.  1947 

Yearning  for  Perfection  II,  2000 
Original  billboard  installation 
LACMA-area  street 


Jose  Lopez 

United  States,  b,  1956 

Neighborhood  Heart  (Good  Fences  Make  Good 
Neighbors),  2000 

Light  projection  on  southern  face  of 
Ahmanson  Building,  lacma  East 

Barry  McGee 

United  States,  b.  1966 

Temporary  wall  painting  (untitled  at  press 
time),  2000 

lacma  parking  garage,  Ogden  Street,  between 
lacma  East  and  lacma  West 

Maria  Nordman 

United  States,  b.  1943 

Untitled,  1973/1995 

Untitled,  1973,  located  since  1995  at  the 
Alameda  Street  loading  dock  of  the  Museum 
of  Contemporary  Art's  Geffen  Contemporary, 
will  be  on  view  again  from  November  2000 
through  February  2001  in  conjunction  with  the 
Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art's  exhibition 
Made  in  California. 

The  collaboration  between  the  two 
institutions  and  travel  by  museum  visitors 
(and  chance  passers-by)  through  Los  Angeles 
from  LACMA  to  MOCA  constitute  elements  of 
the  work  and  make  material  the  continuing 
question.  Is  the  city  a  potential  sculpture? 
MARIA  NORDMAN 

Pat  Ward  Williams 

United  States,  b.  1948 

What  you  lookn  at?,  1992/2000 
Billboard  from  dot-screen  mural  print  and 
spray  paint 
LACMA-area  street 


Richard  Jackson 

United  States,  b.  1939 

Who's  Afraid  of  Red,  Yellow,  and  Blue,  2000 
Used  car,  acrylic  paint,  cement,  and  hardware 
LACMA  West  Green  (Wilshire  Boulevard) 


Margaret  Kilgallen 

United  States,  b.  1967 

Temporary  wall  painting  (untitled  at  press 
time),  2000 

LACMA  parking  garage,  Ogden  Street,  between 
LACMA  East  and  lacma  West 


Made  in  Califo 


Commissioned  Documentary  Works 


Eleven  participatory  environments  engaging 
children  and  their  families  were  commissioned 
by  LACMALab,  a  nev*'  experimental  research 
and  development  division  within  the  museum. 
LACMALab's  inaugural  exhibition.  Made  in 
California:  now,  included  three  generations  of 
California-based  artists. 

Eleanor  Antin 

United  States,  b.  1935 

The  Freebooters,  2000 

Fiberglass,  wood,  yellow  rubber  boots,  and 
miscellaneous  found  objects  and  materials 
Boone  Children's  Gallery,  LACMAWest; 
LACMA  West  Green  (Wilshire  Boulevard); 
Ahmanson  Building,  permanent  collection 
galleries,  lacma  East;  Belzberg  Atrium, 
LACMA  East 

Michael  Asher 

United  States,  b.  1943 

A  student  reinstallation  of  the  Leona  Palmer 
Gallery,  nineteenth-century  European  art, 
LACMA  East;  photo  documentation  of  ongoing 
project,  Boone  Children's  Gallery,  LACMAWest 

Victor  Estrada 

United  States,  b.  1956 

Reflections  on  Poetry,  2000 
Sand,  wood,  cardboard,  paint,  and  miscella- 
neous drawings 
LACMAWest  Green  (Sixth  Street) 

Jacob  Hashimoto 

United  States,  b.  1973 

Watertable,  2000 

Fiberglass,  wood,  water,  and  miscellaneous 

materials 

Boone  Children's  Gallery,  lacma  West 

Jim  Isermann 

United  States,  b.  1955 

UNTITLED  (pLOCk)  (lOOO)  2000,  2000 

Wood,  drywall,  metal,  plaster,  wall  paint,  vinyl 

decals,  Naugahyde  cushions 

Boone  Children's  Gallery,  lacma  West 

Allan  Kaprow 

United  States,  b.  1927 
Bram  Crane-Kaprow 

United  States,  b.  1989 

No  Rules  Except. . .,  2000 
Pillows,  rope,  wood,  metal,  punching  bags, 
lighting,  mirrors,  amplifiers,  and  speakers 
Boone  Children's  Gallery,  lacma  West 


Martin  Kersels 

United  States,  b.  i960 

Musical  Sound  Garden,  2000 

Wood,  miscellaneous  hardware,  steel  drum, 

water 

Boone  Children's  Gallery,  LACMAWest 

Dave  Muller/Three  Day  Weekend 

United  States,  b.  1964 

A  series  of  Three  Day  Weekend  participatory 
and  collaborative  events  involving  artists, 
musicians,  and  audience,  2000-2001 
Boone  Children's  Gallery,  LACMAWest;  and 
other  locations 

John  Outterbridge 

United  States,  b.  1933 

A  Third  Eye  Dreaming,  2000 

Wood,  sand,  cloth,  metal,  rock,  photographs, 

and  miscellaneous  objects 

Boone  Children's  Gallery,  LACMAWest 

Erika  Rothenberg 

United  States 

Hey  kid,  wanna  be  famous?  and  The  Garden  of 
Fame,  2000 

Wood,  video  projection,  steel  tubing,  concrete, 
microphones,  speakers,  paint,  paper,  crayons 
LACMAWest  Green  (Sixth  Street) 

Jennifer  Steinkamp 

United  States,  b.  1958 
Jimmy  Johnson 

United  States,  b.  1969 

Anything  You  Can  Do,  2000 
Computer-generated  video  and  audio,  steel, 
swings,  rubber  flooring 
Boone  Children's  Gallery,  lacma  West 


The  following  were  commissioned  by  lacma 
for  this  exhibition: 

Murals 

Diego  Rivera's  "Allegory  of  California"  (also 
known  as  "Riches  of  California"),  Stock  Exchange 
Building,  San  Francisco  (now  Stock  Exchange 
Tower,  City  Club  of  San  Francisco),  1931 
Reconstruction  by  John  Lodge,  2000 
Lacquer,  acrylic  paint,  plywood,  Plexiglas, 
photographic  prints,  and  fabric 
72  X  36  X  30  in.  (182.9  x  91.4  X  76.2  cm) 
Permission  to  reconstruct  courtesy  Stock 
Exchange  Tower  Associates 

Selected  murals  from  Coit  Tower,  San  Francisco, 

i934 

Reconstruction  by  John  Lodge,  2000 

Lacquer,  acrylic  paint,  plywood,  Plexiglas,  and 

photographic  prints 

18  X  51  x  51  in.  (45.7  x  129.5  X  129.5  cm) 

Included  Victor  Arnautoff,  City  Life;  John 

Langley  Howard,  California  Industrial  Scenes; 

Suzanne  Scheuer,  Newsgathering;  Ralph 

Stackpole,  Industries  of  California;  Frede  Vidar, 

Department  Store;  and  Bernard  Zakheim, 

Library 

Selected  murals  from  Chicano  Park,  San  Diego, 

1975-91 

Reconstruction  by  John  Lodge,  2000 

Latex  paint,  plywood,  steel,  and  photographic 

prints 

Two  rows  of  pilings:  168  x  48  x  48  in.  (426.7  x 

121.9  X  121.9  cm);  144  X  48  X  48  in.  (365.8  x  121.9 

x  121.9  crn) 

Included  Felipe  Adame,  Aztec  Warrior,  1978, 

and  La  Adelita,  1978;  Felipe  Adame,  Socorro 

Gamba,  and  Roger  Lucero,  Serpiente,  1978-91; 

Felipe  Adame,  Octavio  Gonzalez,  and 

Guillermo  Rosete,  Chicano  Park  Takeover, 

1978-91;  Vidal  Aguirre,  Archer,  1987;  Tony  de 

Vargas,  Chicano  Pinto  Union,  1978;  Raul 

Espinoza  and  Michael  Schnorr,  Huelga  Eagle, 

1978-91;  Rupert  Garcia  and  Victor  Ochoa, 

Los  Grandes,  1978;  Raul  Jose  Jacques,  Alvaro 

MiUan,  Victor  Ochoa,  and  Armando 

Rodriguez,  jVarrio  Si,  Yonkes  No!,  1977;  Victor 

Ochoa  et  al.,  Varrio  Logan,  1978;  Victor  Ochoa, 

Che,  c.  1978;  Michael  Schnorr  and  Susan 

Yamagata,  Coatlicue,  1978,  and  Death  of  a 

Farmworker,  1979;  Mario  Torero,  Virgen  de 

Guadalupe,  1978 


California  Murals,  1980-2000 

Created  by  lames  Prigoff  and  Robin  ).  Dunitz, 

2000 

Photo  documentation  of  seventy  selected 

murals  on  loop,  without  sound,  twelve  minutes 

Representative  images  from  California's 

"museum  of  the  streets,"  demonstrating  that 

the  heart  of  the  mural  movement  has  been 

and  continues  to  be  imagery  inspired  by  the 

political  and  social  struggles  that  periodically 

challenge  the  country. 

History  and  Culture 

Selling  Eden  #1,  1898-1920 
Created  by  Morgan  Neville,  2000 
Documentary  short,  without  sound,  three 
minutes 

How  early  motion-picture  photography  pro- 
moted California's  natural  wonders  to  the 
world.  Scenes  of  Yosemite,  the  Mojave  Desert, 
and  the  Golden  Gate  were  included. 

Selling  Eden  #2,  1903-28 
Created  by  Morgan  Neville,  2000 
Documentary  short,  without  sound,  four 
minutes 

Compilation  of  early  travelogues  that  helped  to 
construct  a  mythologized  urban  image  of 
California,  including  footage  documenting  dis- 
asters such  as  the  San  Francisco  earthquake  of 
1906  as  well  as  the  city's  reemergence  with  the 
Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition  of  1915. 

Mistaken  Identities:  Images  of  Latinos  and 
Asians  in  California,  1897-1926 
Created  by  Morgan  Neville,  2000 
Documentary  short,  without  sound,  six  minutes 
This  piece  demonstrated  how  Californians 
employed  movies  to  romanticize — and  some- 
times demonize — the  state's  ethnic  minorities 
for  racial,  political,  and  promotional  ends. 
In  particular,  it  explored  the  way  in  which  the 
state's  Latino  and  Chinese  populations  have 
long  been  caricatured  in  Hollywood  and  else- 
where as  exotic  and  dangerous. 

Hollywood  Glamour,  1918-39 
Created  by  David  Haugland,  2000 
Documentary  film,  with  sound,  seven  minutes 
With  newsreel  and  behind-the-scenes  live- 
action  footage,  this  piece  brought  to  life  the 
inception  and  growth  of  Hollywood  studios  in 
the  1920s  and  1930s  as  "glamour  factories," 
where  teams  of  moguls,  designers,  photogra- 
phers, craftspeople,  and  actors  created  and 
exported  motion-picture  images  that  embodied 
the  American  Dream. 


California  in  the  Depression,  11930-41 
t'reated  by  Morgan  Neville,  2000 
Selected  documentary  clips  (approximately  one 
minute  each),  with  sound  and  a  viewer-activated 
random-access  system 

A  selection  of  news,  documentary,  and  propa- 
ganda footage  demonstrated  in  stark  terms  the 
great  challenges  California  went  through  in  the 
1930s.  The  state's  urbanized  labor,  spearheaded 
by  figures  such  as  Harry  Bridges  and  Upton 
Sinclair,  fought  batdes  for  its  future,  while  its 
agrarian  poor  struggled  to  survive. 

The  Grapes  of  Wrath 

Created  by  Morgan  Neville,  2000 

Compilation  of  film  clips,  with  sound,  four 

minutes 

A  selection  of  clips  from  the  1940  film  The 

Grapes  of  Wrath,  directed  by  lohn  Ford. 

Courtesy  Twentieth  Century  Fox 

California  Goes  to  War,  1942-45 
Created  by  Morgan  Neville,  2000 
Newsreel  short,  with  sound,  five  minutes 
An  examination  of  one  of  the  most  pivotal 
times  in  twentieth-century  California  history. 
Segments  included  newsreel  footage  of 
lapanese  American  relocations,  women  enter- 
ing the  war  industry,  Hollywood's  wartime 
efforts,  and  the  Bracero  program. 

Suburbia,  1943-60 

Created  by  Morgan  Neville,  2000 

Montage  of  film  clips,  with  sound,  three  minutes 

Selections  from  an  array  of  home  movies  that 

revealed  how  Southern  Californians  lived  in 

the  prosperous  wake  of  World  War  II. 

California  Noir,  1944-38 
Created  by  Morgan  Neville,  2000 
Compilation  of  film  clips,  with  sound,  nine 
minutes 

A  selection  of  clips  from  seven  iconic  noir 
films,  including  Double  Indemnity  (1944)  and 
The  Lady  from  Shanghai  (1948),  that  exposed 
the  underbelly  of  the  California  Dream. 

Naming  Names,  1948-32 
Created  by  Morgan  Neville,  2000 
Repeating  one-minute  loops,  with  sound,  on 
five  video  monitors 

A  video  installation  that  presented  friendly 
and  unfriendly  witnesses  before  the  House 
Un-American  Activities  Committee,  the  gov- 
ernment's search  for  Communist  infiltration  of 
the  film  industry  during  the  late  1940s  and 
early  1950s.  Filmed  testimony  gave  voice  to  the 
perspectives  of  key  figures. 


The  Capital  of  the  Teenage  World,  1933-62 
Created  by  Morgan  Neville,  2000 
Documentary  short,  with  sound,  six  minutes 
A  montage  of  two  of  California's  most  youth- 
centric  cultures — the  beach  and  the  car — 
with  photography,  early  surf  films,  magazines, 
and  music.  This  short  film  explored  how 
camp  exaggerations  of  Hollywood's  Gidget 
and  hot-rod  movies  came  to  supplant  those 
original  cultures. 

California  Counterculture — The  Sixties 
Created  by  David  Inocencio  and  Minette 
Siegel,  2000 

Multi-image  presentation  with  slide  projection, 
with  sound,  fifteen  minutes 
An  array  of  projected  imagery  that  showcased 
the  cultural  and  political  revolutions  of  the 
1960s  widely  associated  with  California,  includ- 
ing hippie  culture  in  San  Francisco  and  the 
Haight-Ashbury  district's  "Summer  of  Love"; 
the  Free  Speech  Movement  at  the  University  of 
California,  Berkeley;  the  Native  American 
assertion  of  "Red  Power"  at  Alcatraz;  strikes  by 
the  United  Farm  Workers;  and  the  Black 
Panther  movement. 

Historical  Timeline,  1900-2000 
Compiled  by  Sarah  Schrank 
Designed  by  Louise  Sandhaus,  with  Tim  Durfee 
and  Iris  Regn 

Fabricated  by  Promotion  Products,  Inc., 
Portland,  Oregon 

Each  part:  60  x  96  x  20  in.  (152.4  x  243.8  x  61  cm) 
A  five-part  educational  timeline  of  facts, 
images,  and  objects  pertaining  to  the  art,  popu- 
lar culture,  and  local  histories  of  California. 

Music  and  Poetry 

California  in  Music,  1920-2000 
Created  by  George  Lipsitz,  2000 
Musical  selections,  listener-activated  random- 
access  system 

A  two-hour  compact  disc  with  selections  of 
California  music,  from  Kid  Ory's  "Creole 
Trombone"  of  the  1920s  to  Chicano  punk  and 
Rock  en  Espanol  of  the  1990s. 

Beat  Poetry  and  the  San  Francisco  Renaissance, 
1948-61 

Created  by  S.  S.  Kush  and  Steven  Watson,  2000 
Audio  selection  of  poetry,  listener-activated 
random -access  system 
Recordings  of  fifteen  poets  (including  Allen 
Ginsberg,  Kenneth  Rexroth,  Lawrence 
Ferlinghetti,  and  Gary  Snyder)  reading  selec- 
tions from  their  works. 


Documentary  Materials 


Made  in  California:  Art,  Image,  and  Identity, 
1900-2000,  incorporated  approximately  400 
ephemeral  objects  culled  from  some  thirty  insti- 
tutions and  fifteen  private  collections.  The  exhi- 
bition highlighted  material  culture  to  suggest 
complex  historical  and  cultural  trends  through 
visual  means.  Books,  brochures,  programs,  flyers, 
magazines,  newspapers,  advertisements,  calen- 
dars, album  covers,  posters,  photo  albums, 
documentary  photographs,  telegrams,  letters, 
and  state  and  government  publications  were 
included.  Several  three-dimensional  objects  also 
appeared  in  the  thirty  thematic  cases:  for  exam- 
ple, pennants,  buttons,  a  souvenir  can  of  smog, 
and  a  Barbie  doll. 

Some  display  cases  focused  on  the  point 
of  view  of  a  specific  group:  for  instance,  the 
tourist  industry  or  political  activists.  Others 
presented  a  wide  range  of  perspectives  on  one 
of  the  state's  salient  features,  such  as  agricul- 
ture, the  California  body,  or  Beat  culture.  In 
addition,  some  of  the  ephemera  related  closely 
to  the  art  exhibited,  as  in  the  case  of  Rudi 
Gernreich  fashions  of  the  1960s,  art  produced  by 
the  Ferus  Gallery  group,  or  the  early-twentieth- 
century  taste  for  Native  American  baskets. 
Other  cases  presented  concepts  or  issues  more 
removed  from  art,  such  as  the  construction 
of  the  Los  Angeles  aqueduct,  the  Bracero  pro- 
gram, and  the  Black  Panther  movement. 

The  state's  sizable  tourist  industry  pro- 
duced much  of  the  ephemera  prior  to  World 
War  II.  Throughout  the  first  half  of  the  cen- 
tury, California's  tourist  literature  celebrated 
not  only  its  famous  vacation  spots  in  the 
wilderness  and  iconic  urban  destinations  but 
also  various  loci  of  "heritage"  tourism,  such  as 
Los  Angeles's  Olvera  Street  and  San  Francisco's 
Chinatown.  The  cases  spotlighted  the  agencies 
most  responsible  for  the  rosy-hued  images  of 
California,  directed  at  potential  visitors  and 
settlers  alike.  The  local  business  community, 
including  individual  enterprises  such  as  the 
Hotel  Del  Monte  and  corporate  coalitions  like 
the  All-Year  Club  of  Southern  California,  was 
the  most  prominent  booster.  Railroad  compa- 
nies created  enormous  amounts  of  tourist 
propaganda  well  into  the  1960s.  In  addition,  the 
exhibition  vitrines  traced  the  unusually  prolific 
tradition  of  ritualized  tourist  spaces  and  events, 
from  world's  fairs  and  the  Tournament  of  Roses 
to  Disneyland  and  Pacific  Ocean  Park.  While 
tourism  has  largely  been  run  by  and  targeted  at 
the  Anglo  population,  particularly  in  the  first 
half  of  the  century,  an  effort  was  made  to  doc- 
ument the  state's  wide  diversity  of  participants. 

A  second  category  of  objects  contained 
various  political  artifacts.  In  the  early  sections 
of  the  exhibition,  aspects  of  California 
Progressivism  were  considered  through  docu- 
mentation of  the  Indian  Reform  movement, 
mission  preservation  societies,  and  the  Sierra 


Club's  opposition  to  the  Hetch  Hetchy  dam. 
The  dark  side  of  California's  Progressive  con- 
sensus was  revealed  in  campaign  literature 
espousing  virulent  anti-Asian  sentiment,  already 
a  long  tradition  by  1900.  Later  periods  bore 
witness  to  the  polarization  of  the  state's  politi- 
cal culture.  On  the  political  left,  the  explosive 
impact  of  the  labor  movement  in  both  the  cities 
and  the  fields  during  the  1930s  is  still  felt  today. 
Prewar  material,  such  as  an  illustrated  history 
of  the  International  Longshoremen's  and 
Warehousemen's  Union  from  the  1930s,  was 
followed  by  the  material  culture  of  community- 
based  political  organizations,  like  the  Black 
Panthers,  the  United  Farm  Workers  labor 
movement,  and  the  Chicano  movement.  Cases 
devoted  to  the  political  right  documented  the 
antilabor  activities  of  agribusiness,  attacks  on 
art  and  culture  by  anticommunists,  and  the 
xenophobia  of  World  War  II,  which  ranged 
from  the  institutional  racism  of  the  Japanese 
internment  camps  to  the  interpersonal  violence 
of  the  Zoot  Suit  riots. 

A  third  group  of  documents  charted 
urban  development  and  the  growth  of  the 
state's  infrastructure.  The  public  works  of  the 
1930s,  like  the  Golden  Gate  and  San  Francisco- 
Oakland  Bay  bridges,  gave  way  to  wartime  pro- 
duction and  later  to  the  state's  freeway  system, 
athletic  stadiums,  and  the  explosive  postwar 
housing  boom.  At  times,  urban  development 
and  "renewal"  came  at  the  expense  of  poor 
minority  communities,  like  those  of  Chavez 
Ravine  in  Los  Angeles  and  the  Fillmore  District 
in  San  Francisco. 

The  remaining  material  generally  fell  into 
the  broad  category  of  cultural  history.  Within 
the  purview  of  high  culture,  a  number  of 
pieces  elucidated  the  emergence  of  assorted 
and  often  loose  coalitions  of  artists  and  writers: 
from  the  Carmel  artist  colony  to  the  Mexican 
muralists  in  California,  from  the  Beats  to 
Teatro  Campesino  and  Womanhouse.  A  few 
items  traced  lacma's  own  institutional  history, 
from  its  Pan-American  exhibition  of  1925  to 
the  Los  Four  show  of  1974.  A  larger  array  of 
documents  represented  many  examples  of  pop- 
ular culture,  from  Hollywood,  West  Coast  jazz, 
beach  culture,  the  rock  and  hippie  counter- 
cuhures  to  California's  car  culture,  including 
lowriders  and  the  artists  of  the  Kustom  Kar 
Kulture  (such  as  Big  Daddy  Roth).  Although 
the  bulk  of  the  exhibition  ephemera  was 
grouped  into  the  categories  outlined  above,  the 
individual  objects  reflected  the  wide  range  of 
voices  that  defined  California  throughout  the 
last  century  and  in  this  exhibition. 

Documentary  materials  were  selected  by  Eulogio 
Guzman  and  John  Ott,  with  the  assistance  of 
Carolyn  Peter. 


LENDERS  TO   THE  EXHIBITION 


This  list  is  complcie  as  o(  July  , 


Academy  of  Motion  Picture  Arts  &  Sciences 
Albright-Knox  Art  Gallery,  Buffalo 
American  Craft  Museum,  New  York 
Gallery  Paule  Anglim 
The  Annex  Galleries 

Jenny  Armit  Design  and  Decorative  Art,  Inc. 
The  Art  Institute  of  Chicago 
Automobile  Club  of  Southern  California 
Sid  Avery/Motion  Picture  and  Television 

Photo  Archive 
Estate  of  Ruth-Marion  Baruch 
Estate  of  Wallace  Barman 
Robert  Bijou  Fine  Arts 

The  Bowers  Museum  of  Cultural  Art,  Santa  Ana 
Brandeis  University,  Rose  Art  Museum,  Waltham, 

Massachusetts 
Estate  of  Horace  Bristol 
The  Broad  Art  Foundation,  Santa  Monica 
Burbank  Public  Library 

Hans  G.  and  Thordis  W.  Burkhardt  Foundation 
California  Historical  Society,  North  Baker  Research 

Library,  San  Francisco 
California  Polytechnic  State  University,  Kennedy 

Library,  Special  Collections,  University 

Archives,  San  Luis  Obispo 
California  State  Railroad  Museum,  Sacramento 
California  State  University,  Fullerton,  Pollak 

Library 
California  State  University,  Los  Angeles,  John  F. 

Kennedy  Memorial  Library 
California  State  University,  Northridge,  Center  for 

Photojournalism  and  Visual  History 
California  State  University,  Northridge,  Special 

Collection  Archives 
Caltrans  Transportation  Library 
Campbell  Thiebaud  Gallery,  San  Francisco 
Iris  and  B.  Gerald  Cantor  Center  for  Visual  Arts  at 

Stanford  University 
Center  for  the  Study  of  Political  Graphics, 

Los  Angeles 
Catharine  Clark  Gallery 
Columbia  University,  Avery  Architectural  and 

Fine  Arts  Library,  New  York 
Creative  Artists  Agency 
Curtis  Galleries,  Minneapolis 
Deitch  Projects 
Neil  M.  Denari  Architects 
DeRu's  Fine  Arts,  Laguna  Beach 
di  Rosa  Preserve,  Napa 
Walt  Disney  Archives 

Duval  Estate,  George  Stern  Fine  Arts,  Los  Angeles 
George  Eastman  House,  International  Museum  of 

Photography,  Rochester 
Edenhurst  Gallery 
Electronic  Arts  Intermix 
The  Fabric  Workshop 
Fahey/ Klein  Gallery,  Los  Angeles 
The  Fashion  Institute  of  Design  &  Merchandising, 

Museum  Collection,  Los  Angeles 


Fat  Chance,  Los  Angeles 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco,  Achenbach 

Foundation  for  Graphic  Arts 
Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco,  M.  H. 

de  Young  Memorial  Museum 
Ron  Finley's  Midnight  Matinee 
First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist 
Fischinger  Archive 
GLBT  Historical  Society  of  Northern  California, 

San  Francisco 
The  Gamble  House,  Pasadena,  University  of 

Southern  California 
Garzoli  Gallery,  San  Rafael 
Frank  O.  Gehry  &  Associates 
Gemini  G.E.L.,  Los  Angeles 
The  J.  Paul  Getty  Museum,  Los  Angeles 
The  Haggin  Museum,  Stockton 
Paul  Hertzmann,  Susan  Herzig,  and  Paul  M. 

Hertzmann,  Inc.,  San  Francisco 
The  Huntington  Library,  Art  Collections,  and 

Botanical  Gardens,  San  Marino 
The  iota  Center 
Irell  &  Manella  LLP 
The  Irvine  Museum 
Iturralde  Gallery  Collection 
Japanese  American  National  Museum,  Los  Angeles 
The  Jerde  Partnership  International 
A.  Quincy  Jones  Architecture  Archive 
Kappe  Architects/Planners 
Jan  Kesner  Gallery 
Craig  Krull  Gallery,  Santa  Monica 
L.A.  Louver  Gallery 
lam/ocma  Art  Collection  Trust 
Margo  Leavin  Gallery 
Frank  Lloyd  Gallery,  Santa  Monica 
Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art 
Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art,  Balch  Library 
Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Natural  History, 

Seaver  Center  for  Western  History  Research 
Los  Angeles  Public  Library,  Rare  Books 

Department 
Matthew  Marks  Gallery,  New  York 
Masterpiece  Gallery 
Mattel,  Inc. 

The  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York 
Mills  College  Art  Museum,  Oakland 
Modernica 

Mark  Moore  Gallery,  Santa  Monica 
Morphosis 

Eric  Owen  Moss  Architects 
Tobey  C.  Moss  Gallery 
Munson-Williams-Proctor  Institute,  Museum  of 

Art,  LItica,  New  York 
Museum  of  California  Design,  Los  Angeles 
The  Museum  of  Contemporary  Art,  Los  Angeles 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Museum  of  New  Mexico, 

Santa  Fe 


The  Museum  of  Modern  Art,  New  York 

The  Museum  of  Photographic  Arts,  San  Diego 

The  National  Museum  of  Women  in  the  Arts, 

Washington,  D.C. 
The  Oakland  Museum  of  California 
The  Oakmont  Corporation 
Orange  County  Museum  of  Art,  Newport  Beach 
El  Pachuco  Zoot  Suits,  Fullerton 
Palm  Beach  Institute  of  Contemporary  Art 
Perlmutter  Fine  Arts,  San  Francisco 
Philadelphia  Museum  of  Art 
Pico  Holdings,  Inc. 

Princeton  University,  The  Minor  White  Archive 
Quint  Contemporary  Art 
Regen  Projects,  Los  Angeles 
Andrea  Rosen  Gallery,  New  York 
RoTo  Architects  Incorporated 
San  Diego  Historical  Society 
San  Diego  Historical  Society,  Research  Archives 
San  Diego  State  University,  Library  and 

Information  Access 
San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art 
San  Francisco  Public  Library,  San  Francisco 

History  Center 
San  Francisco  State  University,  Labor  Archives  and 

Research  Center 
San  Jose  State  University,  Center  for  Steinbeck 

Studies 
Sandroni  Rey 

Santa  Barbara  Museum  of  Art 
Daniel  Saxon  Gallery 
Scripps  College,  Claremont 
Seattie  Art  Museum 
Sierra  Madre  Public  Library 
Norton  Simon  Museum,  Pasadena 
Smith  College  Museum  of  Art,  Northampton, 

Massachusetts 
Joan  Irvine  Smith  Fine  Arts,  Laguna  Beach 
Smithsonian  Institution,  Hirshhorn  Museum  and 

Sculpture  Garden 
Smithsonian  Institution,  National  Museum  of 

American  History 
Southern  California  Library  for  Social  Studies  and 

Research,  Los  Angeles 
The  Southwest  Museum,  Los  Angeles 
Sragow  Gallery,  New  York 
State  Museum  Resource  Center,  California, 

Department  of  Parks  and  Recreation 
Bernice  Steinbaum  Gallery,  Miami 
Sunset  Magazine,  Menio  Park 
Tacoma  Public  Library 
The  Theosophical  Society,  Pasadena 
Tom  of  Finland  Foundation,  Los  Angeles 
Steve  Turner  Gallery,  Beverly  Hills 
LIniversity  of  California,  Berkeley,  Art  Museum 
University  of  California,  Berkeley,  The  Bancroft 

Library 


University  of  California,  Berkeley,  College  of 

Environmental  Design,  Documents 

Collection 
University  of  California,  Davis,  Shields  Library 
University  of  California,  Irvine,  Libraries,  Special 

Collections 
University  of  California,  Los  Angeles,  Chicane 

Studies  Research  Center  Library 
University  of  California,  Los  Angeles,  Library, 

Department  of  Special  Collections 
University  of  California,  Santa  Barbara,  University 

Art  Museum,  Architecture  and  Design 

Collection 
University  of  Minnesota,  Frederick  R.  Weisman 

Art  Museum,  Minneapolis 
University  of  Nevada,  Sheppard  Gallery,  Reno 
University  of  Southern  California,  Doheny  Library, 

Los  Angeles 
University  of  Southern  California,  Regional 

History  Center,  Los  Angeles 
The  University  of  Texas  at  Austin,  The  General 

Libraries,  The  Alexander  Architectural 

Archive 
Utah  State  University,  Nora  Eccles  Harrison 

Museum  of  Art,  Logan 
Video  Data  Bank 
Warner  Bros. 
Shoshana  Wayne  Gallery 

Frederick  R.  Weisman  Art  Foundation,  Los  Angeles 
Margaret  W.  Weston,  Weston  Gallery,  Inc. 
Whitney  Museum  of  American  Art,  New  York 
The  Wolfsonian-Florida  International  University, 

The  Mitchell  Wolfson  Jr.  Collection, 

Miami  Beach 
The  Yosemite  Museum,  National  Park  Service 
Gallery  "Z,"  Beverly  Hills 


Kim  Abeles 

Jerome  Ackerman 

Allan  Adier 

Laura  Aguilar 

Terry  Allen  and  Allen  Ruppersberg 

Joseph  Ambrose  and  Michael  Feddersen 

Lawrence  Andrews 

Skip  Arnold 

John  Arvanites 

Ruth  Asawa 

Dana  Atchley 

David  Avalos 

Armando  M.  Avila  and  Family 

Bedford  Family  Collection 

Jordan  Belson 

Billy  Al  Bengston 

Mark  Bennett 

Helen  and  Tony  Berlant,  Santa  Monica 

Pam  Biallas 

Teresa  Bjornson,  Los  Angeles 

Marilyn  Blaisdell  Collection 

Shoshana  and  Wayne  Blank 

Peter  and  Isabel  Blumberg 

Chaz  Bojorquez 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  A.  Botke 

John  P.  Bowles 

Matthew  A.  Boxt  and  Aida  Mostkoff  Linares, 

Culver  City 
Robert  Brady 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  E.  Brandow 
John  Bransten 
G.  Breitweiser 
Charles  Brittin 
Jessica  Bronson 
Wendy  Barrie  Brotman 
Jeff  Brouws 

The  Michael  D.  Brown  Collection 
Nancy  Buchanan 

The  Buck  Collection,  Laguna  Hills 
Chris  Burden 
Andrew  Bush 
Cathy  Callahan 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  David  Charak 
Judy  Chicago 

Christo  and  Jeanne-Claude 
Mama  Clark 
William  Claxton 
Marian  Clayden 
Anne  and  Marvin  H.  Cohen 
Stephen  Cohen 
Bob  Coleman 
Lia  Cook 
Miles  Coolidge 
Patricia  S.  Cornelius 
Philip  Cornelius 
E.  Gene  Grain  Collection 
A.  Lawrence  and  Anne  Spooner  Crowe 
Larry  Cuba 
Darryl  and  Doris  Curran 


Victoria  Dailey 

lulie  Schafler  Dale 

Judy  Dater 

Michael  Dawson 

Robert  Dawson 

Rosa  and  Carlos  de  la  Cruz 

Einar  de  la  Torre  and  Jamex  de  la  Torre 

Louis  F.  D'Elia 

The  Delman  Collection,  San  Francisco 

Johanna  Demetrakas 

Lewis  deSoto 

Stephen  De  Staebler 

Kris  Dey 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  R.  Dick  Jr. 

Carlos  Diniz 

Sue  and  Albert  Dorskind 

Sharon  B.  Drager 

Nancy  Dubois 

Tony  Duquette 

Lucia  Fames 

Charles  C.  and  Sue  K.  Edwards 

Roger  Epperson  and  Carol  Alderdice 

Betty  and  Monte  Factor  Collection,  Santa  Monica 

Suzanne  and  Howard  Feldman 

The  Fieldstone  Collection 

Frederick  Fisher 

Laura  Fisher 

Robbert  Flick 

William  Franco 

Ron  and  Nancy  Frank  and  Edward  Frank 

Anthony  Friedkin 

Larry  Fuente 

Harry  Gamboa  Jr. 

Frank  O.  Gehry 

Joanna  Giallelis 

Paula  and  Irving  Click 

Jim  Goldberg 

Lisa  and  Douglas  Goldman 

Shifra  M.  Goldman 

Ken  Gonzales-Day 

Joe  Goode 

Morris  T.  Grabie  and  Sherry  Latt  Lowry 

Phyllis  Green 

Daniel  Gregory 

The  Grinstein  Family 

Helen  Mayer  Harrison  and  Newton  Harrison 

Jeff  Haskin 

Jim  Heimann 

Ruth  and  Alfred  Heller 

Ester  Hernandez 

Lynn  Hershman 

Charles  and  Victoria  Hill 

Curtis  M.  Hill 

Louis  Hock 

Margaret  Honda 

Dennis  Hopper 

Mildred  Howard 

Randy  Hussong 

David  Ireland 


Richard  Jackson 

Feme  )acobs 

lasper  Johns 

The  Michael  Johnson  Collection 

Elaine  K.  Sewell  Jones 

Pirkle  Jones 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Albert  Kallis,  Los  Angeles 

Gloria  and  Sonny  Kamm 

Norman  Karlson 

Hiromi  Katayama 

Margery  and  Maurice  Katz 

Hilja  Reading 

Jeff  Kerns,  Los  Angeles 

Bernard  Kester 

Sant  Khalsa 

Anthony  Kiedis 

Candace  Kling 

David  Knaus 

Hirokazu  Kosaka 

Alice  and  Marvin  Kosmin 

Ina  Kozel 

Leslie  Labowitz 

Suzanne  Lacy 

Robin  Lasser 

Max  Lawrence 

Doug  and  Joelle  Lawrie 

Jeffrey  Leifer 

Oscar  and  Trudy  Lemer 

Fannie  and  Alan  Leslie 

Mel  and  Sharlene  Leventhal 

Lydia  and  Chuck  Levy 

Joe  Lewis 

Kimberly  Light 

Li-lan 

Marvin  Lipofsky 

John  Lofaso 

Vicki  and  Kent  Logan,  San  Francisco 

Robert  and  Mary  Looker 

Yolanda  M.  Lopez 

John  Gilbert  Luebtow 

Gilbert  (Magu)  Sanchez  Lujan 

James  Luna 

Mike  Mandel 

Ray  Manzarek 

Michael  and  Patti  Marcus 

Tom  Marioni 

Richard  Marquis 

Joel  Marshall 

T.  Kelly  Mason 

Paul  McCarthy 

The  McClelland  Collection 

Barbara  and  Buzz  McCoy 

Barry  McGee 

Michael  C.  McMillen 

Merle  and  Gerald  Measer 

Richard  Meier 

Amalia  Mesa-Bains 

Gary  and  Tracy  Mezzatesta 

Frank  Miceli 


Estelie  and  Jim  Milch 

Roger  Minick 

Peter  Mitchell-Dayton 

Archie  Miyatake,  Miyatake  Collection 

Susan  Mogul 

Linda  Montano 

Michelle  Montgomery  and  David  Kent 

Mark  Moriarity 

William  Moritz 

Ed  Moses 

Joseph  L.  Moure 

Nancy  Dustin  Wall  Moure 

Ron  Nagle 

Joyce  Neimanas 

Manuel  Neri 

Daniel  Nicoletta 

Linda  Nishio 

Don  Normark 

Eileen  and  Peter  Norton,  Santa  Monica 

Jonathan  Novak,  Los  Angeles 

Stephen  Oakes  and  Olivia  Georgia 

The  Obata  Family 

Gordon  Onslow  Ford 

Ruben  Ortiz-Torres 

Tom  Patchett,  Los  Angeles 

Patricia  Patterson 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Stanley  C.  Patterson 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Norman  Pattiz 

Edmund  F.  Penney  and  Mercedes  A.  Penney 

Kathy  and  Ron  Perisho 

Carolyn  Peter 

Charles  Phoenix 

Patti  Podesta 

Anne  and  Arnold  Porath 

Ken  and  Happy  Price 

Joan  and  Jack  Quinn,  Beverly  Hills 

Marcos  Ramirez  ERRE 

Armando  Rascon 

Dennis  Reed  and  Amy  Reed  Collection 

Stephen  I.  Reinstein 

Susan  and  Michael  Rich 

Rigo 

Rob  Roberts 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  C.  David  Robinson,  Sausalito 

Steve  Roden  and  Dan  Goodsell 

Mimi  Rogers 

Frank  Romero 

Sheree  Rose 

Richard  Rosenzweig  and  Judy  Henning 

Bill  Rush 

Sandor  Family  Collection 

Frank  T.  Sata,  Pasadena 

Sarah  Schrank,  San  Diego 

Ilene  Segalove 

Miki  Seifert 

Allan  Sekula 

Bonnie  Sherk 

Richard  E.  Sherwood  Family  Collection 

Billy  Shire 


Peter  Shire 

Julius  Shulman 

Gilbert  and  Lila  Silv 

Michael  Simental  and  Phill  Starr 

Barry  Sloane 

Deborah  Small 

Barbara  Smith 

Eileen  R.  Solomon 

John  Sonsini 

Judy  and  Stuart  Spence 

Stecyk  Family 

Robert  and  Ann  Steiner 

Daniel  Strebin 

Marion  Boulton  Stroud 

John  Sturgeon 

Larry  Sultan 

Lydia  and  Andrew  H.  Sussman 

Sutnar  Foundation 

Kathryn  Sylva 

Janice  Tanaka 

Selwyn  Ting  and  Clover  Lee 

Lothar  Tirala 

Donald  and  DeAnne  Todd 

John  Tolbert 

Fred  Tomaselli 

Salvador  Roberto  Torres 

Roberta  Rice  Treseder 

Peter  Turman 

Steve  Turner 

Dean  Valentine  and  Amy  Adelson,  Los  Angeles 

Deborah  Valoma 

Anna  van  der  Meulen 

Ron  and  Susan  Vander  Molen 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robert  Veloz 

Camilo  Jose  Vergara 

The  Marjorie  and  Leonard  Vernon  Collection 

Bill  Viola 

Anne  Walsh 

Jeri  L.  Waxenberg 

June  Wayne 

Jonathan  Quincy  Weare 

Nancy  and  John  Weare 

Roger  Webster 

Pae  White 

Stephen  White  II 

Hutton  Wilkinson 

Wilson  Center  for  Photography 

Albert  J.  Winn 

Erin  Younger  and  Ed  Leibow 

Suzanne  W.  and  Tibor  Zada 

Jody  Zellen 

Andrea  Zittel 

and  anonymous  lenders 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


The  development  and  production  of  on  exhibition  on  the  scale 
of  Made  in  California:  Art,  Image,  and  Identity,  1900-2000 
would  not  have  been  possible  without  the  cooperation  of  the 
many  colleagues,  artists,  and  lenders  who  contributed  to  the 
project  over  the  past  six  years.  The  exhibition  required  an 
unusual  level  of  collaboration  among  nine  programmatic 
departments,  as  well  as  early  and  consistent  participation  from 
the  exhibitions,  publications,  and  graphic  design  departments  at 
LACMA.  In  recognition  of  their  efforts,  these  acknowledgments 
are  written  on  behalf  of  the  core  team  of  lacma  curators  and 
educators  who  labored  on  this  extraordinary  exhibition. 

Made  in  California  began  with  a  desire  to  explore  the 
rich  subject  of  California  art  of  the  twentieth  century  from 
many  points  of  view  and  in  many  mediums.  Ilene  Susan  Fort, 
Curator  of  American  Art,  was  an  early  enthusiastic  collabora- 
tor. Together  she  and  I  led  the  team  approach  that  made  this 
exhibition  possible.  Her  extensive  knowledge  of  American  and 
Californian  art  and  well-honed  research  and  curatorial  skills 
helped  to  guide  the  exhibition  and  shape  its  two  related  publi- 
cations. Sheri  Bernstein  served  as  full-time  Exhibition 
Associate  for  the  project.  Bernstein  played  a  pivotal  role  in 
bringing  us  all  together  and  in  conceptualizing  both  the  exhi- 
bition and  its  publications.  She  worked  closely  with  many 
museum  colleagues  and  helped  to  chart  our  course  through- 
out many  discussions  about  the  nature  and  purpose  of  the 
exhibition.  We  have  all  benefited  from  her  focus  on  the  project 
and  from  her  diplomatic  skill.  She  has  written  extensively  in 
the  present  catalogue,  weaving  together  the  themes  of  the 
exhibition.  It  would  have  been  impossible  to  conceive  and 
mount  Made  in  California  without  her. 

The  core  group  of  curators  who  worked  on  the  project 
came  from  the  lacma  departments  of  American  art,  costume 
and  textiles,  decorative  arts,  modern  and  contemporary  art, 
photography,  and  prints  and  drawings.  Early  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  exhibition,  the  curatorial  team  expanded  to 
include  the  lacma  departments  of  film,  music,  and  education. 
One  colleague  in  particular,  the  late  Bruce  S.  Davis,  Curator  of 
Prints  and  Drawings,  brought  clarity,  intelligence,  and  wit  to 
the  development  process.  His  untimely  death  in  1997  cut  short 
his  involvement.  We  dedicate  this  volume  to  his  memory. 

During  the  final  two  years  of  preparation,  Eulogio 
Guzman  joined  the  team  as  research  assistant.  Guzman  assumed 
the  primary  role  of  locating,  selecting,  and  coordinating  loans 
of  architectural  drawings  and  ferreting  out  a  wide  variety  of 


ephemeral  material  from  1940  to  2000.  For  his  dedication  and 
indefatigable  effort  on  many  aspects  of  the  show's  develop- 
ment, we  are  grateful.  We  were  also  significantly  aided  by 
research  assistant  John  Ott,  who  not  only  selected  documen- 
tary material  covering  the  years  from  1900  to  1940  for  the 
exhibition  but  also  wrote  for  the  accompanying  anthology 
and  compiled  the  bibliography  included  in  this  volume.  Our 
research  team  was  assisted  by  Carolyn  Peter  in  San  Francisco. 
Peter  worked  tirelessly  in  the  Bay  Area,  visiting  archives, 
museums,  collectors,  dealers,  and  scholars  on  lacma's  behalf. 
We  are  grateful  for  her  collegial  cooperation  throughout  the 
project.  Guzman,  Ott,  and  Peter  contributed  significantly  to 
the  conceptualization  and  realization  of  the  project. 

The  work  of  the  lacma  team  was  enriched  by  contribu- 
tions from  numerous  scholars  working  in  fields  outside  our 
areas  of  specialization.  While  the  programmatic  expertise  of 
the  lacma  team  is  extensive,  we  felt  the  need  to  expand  our 
horizons  by  inviting  scholars  in  other  disciplines  to  discuss  the 
project  with  us.  In  fall  1997,  team  member  Paul  Holdengraber, 
now  Director  of  the  lacma  Institute  for  Art  and  Cultures, 
brought  together  colleagues  from  outside  the  museum  for  our 
first  colloquium,  a  weekend  of  roundtable  discussion.  For  that 
event,  lacma's  multidisciplinary  team  was  joined  by  twenty- 
three  writers,  geographers,  critics,  filmmakers,  film  and  art  his- 
torians, educators,  critical  and  cultural  studies  scholars,  artists, 
and  librarians  who  helped  us  enormously  in  refining  our  topic 
and  approach.  It  was  an  exhilarating  experience  and  moved  the 
project  forward  immeasurably.  The  early  and  enthusiastic  sup- 
port of  State  Librarian  Kevin  Starr,  who  embraced  our  project 
as  the  largest  California-related  presentation  during  the  state's 
sesquicentennial,  was  particularly  helpful.  During  the  summer 
of  1998,  in  a  series  of  five  seminars,  lacma  team  members  had 
the  opportunity  to  work  closely  with  a  new  group  of  scholars, 
who  came  to  the  museum  to  review  the  exhibition  outline  and 
share  with  us  yet  another  range  of  perspectives  on  the  project. 
For  their  generous  participation  we  thank  all  who  attended 
these  sessions;  their  engagement  greatly  influenced  this  project. 
Their  names  are  listed  on  page  334. 

The  following  authors  contributed  to  the  anthology 
volume,  Reading  California:  Art,  Image,  and  Identity,  1900-2000, 
that  accompanies  this  catalogue:  Blake  Allmendinger,  John  P. 
Bowles,  Margaret  Crawford,  Ilene  Susan  Fort,  Howard  N.  Fox, 
Karin  Higa,  Paul  J.  Karlstrom,  Norman  M.  Klein,  Anthony  W 
Lee,  George  Lipsitz,  Chon  A.  Noriega,  John  Ott,  Carolyn  Peter, 


Dana  Polan,  Sarah  Schrank,  Peter  Selz,  Kevin  Starr,  Sally  Stein, 
Tim  B.  Wride,  and  Lynn  Zelevanksy.  We  would  also  like  to 
thank  authors  Sheri  Bernstein,  Michael  Dear,  Howard  N.  Fox, 
and  Richard  Rodriguez,  whose  thoughtful  contributions 
enrich  the  present  volume. 

Made  in  California  was  planned  to  occur  on  the  cusp  of 
a  new  century  and  to  encompass  the  contributions  of  many 
departments.  The  decision  was  therefore  made  to  give  the 
show  an  unusual  amount  of  space  and  to  have  it  on  view  for 
an  extended  period.  We  are  grateful  for  the  enthusiastic  and 
consistent  support  received  from  Andrea  L.  Rich,  lacma 
President  and  Director,  as  well  as  from  former  lacma  director 
Graham  W  J.  Beal,  and  from  the  museum's  Board  of  Trustees. 

The  exhibition  covered  more  than  45,000  square  feet  in 
two  buildings  on  five  floors.  A  related  exhibition.  Made  in 
California:  now,  was  mounted  in  the  Boone  Children's  Gallery 
at  LACMA  West.  The  extensive  physical  space  allocated  to  Made 
in  California  underscored  important  issues  about  the  installation 
process  and  its  impact  on  visitors.  How  would  visitors  follow  the 
chronology,  themes,  and  interpretations  of  more  than  800  works 
of  art  and  more  than  400  documents  and  examples  of  material 
culture  and  absorb  two  dozen  audio  and  video  presentations, 
not  to  speak  of  text  panels,  timelines,  and  other  didactic  materi- 
als? It  became  apparent  early  on  that  designing  the  exhibition  for 
maximum  visitor  understanding  would  be  a  challenge.  For 
undertaking  this  responsibility  we  are  enormously  grateful  to 
our  design  team,  led  by  Tim  Durfee  and  Louise  Sandhaus,  with 
Iris  Regn,  who  in  the  past  two  years  have  been  integral  members 
of  our  team,  attending  countless  meetings  and  engaging  in  many 
discussions  related  to  content,  approach,  interpretation,  and 
meaning.  Their  imaginative,  innovative,  and  thoughtful  design 
has  responded  to  very  complicated  issues  of  intention,  audience, 
and  presentation.  Designer  Bernard  Kester  not  only  worked  with 
Assistant  Curator  of  Decorative  Arts  lo  Lauria  in  conceptualizing 
and  executing  the  three  lifestyle  environments,  but  also  assisted 
in  crucial  ways  with  important  design  issues  throughout  the 
project.  They  have  all  worked  closely  with  lacma  Senior 
Designer  Scott  Taylor  to  present  the  rich  installation  that  is  so 
critical  to  the  exhibition's  point  of  view.  Exhibition -related  envi- 
ronmental design,  particularly  in  the  public  spaces,  was  the 
result  of  their  collaboration  with  Jim  Drobka,  head  of  graphic 
design  at  lacma,  who  supervised  the  entire  design  effort.  We  are 
grateful  to  all  of  our  designers  for  their  sensitive  response  to  the 
challenges  presented  by  the  project. 


Such  a  complex  and  ambitious  exhibition  and  its  related 
publications  are  costly  to  plan  and  execute.  Our  deepest  thanks 
go  to  the  S.  Mark  Taper  Foundation  for  providing  early,  sus- 
tained, and  major  funding  for  the  exhibition.  We  are  greatly 
indebted  to  President  Janice  Taper  Lazarof,  Executive  Director 
Ray  Reisler,  and  the  foundation's  board  for  their  close  cooper- 
ation with  the  lacma  team. 

Grateful  acknowledgment  is  also  made  to  the  Donald 
Bren  Foundation,  which  underwrote  a  significant  portion  of 
the  exhibition.  The  National  Endowment  for  the  Arts  and 
Bank  of  America  also  supported  the  project,  as  did  Helen  and 
Peter  Bing,  who  provided  early  research  and  planning  support. 
Additional  thanks  go  to  the  Peter  Norton  Family  Foundation, 
See's  Candies,  the  Brotman  Foundation  of  California,  and 
Farmers  Insurance.  The  project  received  generous  in-kind  sup- 
port from  FrameStore  and  klon  88.1  fm.  Printing  of  both 
Made  in  California  volumes  in  California  was  made  possible 
by  generous  in-kind  support  from  Gardner  Lithograph  in 
Buena  Park  and  an  in-kind  donation  of  paper  from  Appleton 
Coated  llc.  Tom  Jacobson,  director  of  development  at  lacma, 
approached  the  task  of  funding  this  project  with  imagination 
and  his  customary  professionalism. 

Aya  Yoshida,  lead  curatorial  administrator  on  the  proj- 
ect, masterfully  engineered  extensive  databases  to  manage  the 
great  amount  of  loan  information  and  correspondence  gener- 
ated by  the  project;  we  are  deeply  grateful  for  her  tenacity  and 
good  cheer.  Yoshida  worked  closely  with  curatorial  administra- 
tors Maile  Pingel,  Eve  Schillo,  Danielle  Sierra,  Krishanti  Wahla, 
and  Margo  Zelinka,  who  were  resourceful  and  helpful  at  all 
stages.  Carol  Matthieu,  curatorial  administrator  in  the  depart- 
ment of  modern  and  contemporary  art,  assumed  many  addi- 
tional responsibilities  in  keeping  team  members  informed  and 
on  track  through  scores  of  meetings  and  communications;  her 
superior  abilities  are  much  appreciated.  We  are  also  grateful 
for  the  assistance  of  Jill  Martinez,  former  curatorial  assistant, 
modern  and  contemporary,  as  well  as  our  invaluable  volun- 
teers Beatrice  Farber,  Sharon  Gillespie,  Betty  Helfen,  Roz 
Leader,  Lee  Marcuse,  Lois  Sein,  and  Cambra  Stern;  department 
of  costume  and  textiles  interns  Lopa  Pal,  Kentura  Persellin, 
and  Zoe  Whitley;  the  exemplary  research  skills  of  our  Ralph 
M.  Parsons  Intern  in  Photography,  Karen  Weldon  Roswell,  and 
former  Richard  E.  Sherwood  Memorial  Intern  P.  Eric  Perry. 
Exhibition  assistant  Shana  Rosengart  joined  the  team  to  assist 
with  final  exhibition  details  and  education  programs.  Anne 


\CKNOWLEDGMENTS 


Diederick,  librarian  in  the  museum's  Balch  Research  Library, 
responded  with  customary  good  grace  to  countless  interlibrary 
loan  requests.  Virginia  Fields,  Curator  of  Pre-Columbian  Art, 
assisted  with  the  selection  and  installation  of  Native  American 
basketware  in  the  exhibition. 

Essential  to  the  five  exhibit  sections,  each  of  which  cov- 
ers two  decades  of  the  twentieth  century,  are  a  series  of  media 
stations  composed  of  rare  footage  and  other  archival  materi- 
als. Commissioned  from  Morgan  Neville,  David  Haugland, 
and  the  studio  of  David  Inocencio  and  Minette  Siegel,  these 
contributions  richly  enhanced  the  exhibition  and  comple- 
mented the  adjacent  selections  of  art.  Sections  3  through  5  of 
the  exhibition,  covering  1940  to  the  present,  offered  opportu- 
nities to  present  artist  films  and  video,  performance,  and 
installation  art.  For  his  guidance  in  the  history  of  film,  video, 
and  performance,  we  are  grateful  to  Peter  Kirby,  who  was  an 
exceptionally  generous  colleague.  In  collaboration  with  lacma 
curators,  Kirby  played  a  significant  role  in  choosing  the  works 
in  those  mediums  included  in  the  exhibition.  Historian 
George  Lipsitz  chose  selections  of  popular  music  relating  to 
the  twenty-year  sections,  and  Steven  Watson  and  S.  S.  Kush 
produced  an  audio  anthology  of  Beat-generation  poetry. 

To  convey  the  importance  of  murals  in  California  in  the 
twentieth  century,  we  turned  to  photographer  and  mural  spe- 
cialist James  Prigoff,  who,  assisted  by  Robin  Dunitz,  selected 
images  of  nearly  seventy  contemporary  murals  that  could  be 
viewed  on  one  monitor.  Architectural  model  maker  John  Lodge 
created  three  stations  that  provide  views  of  murals  in  situ. 
Another  key  component  of  the  exhibition  was  the  timeline  that 
introduced  each  section.  For  sensitively  combining  well-known 
historical  events  with  facts  specific  to  California  history,  tracing 
waves  of  migration  and  the  growth  of  museums  and  schools, 
and  weaving  political  and  economic  events  into  a  fascinating 
and  imaginative  sequence  illustrated  with  photographs  and 
archival  documents,  we  are  grateful  to  historian  Sarah  Schrank. 

Victoria  Clare,  administrative  assistant  in  the  depart- 
ments of  modern  and  contemporary  art  and  education  and 
public  programs,  deserves  special  acknowledgment  for  being 
such  an  able  liaison  with  each  of  these  outside  specialists.  Clare 
has  worked  closely  with  me  during  the  development  of  the 
project  and  has  been  responsible  for  coordinating  twenty-four 
commissioned  productions  and  ensuring  the  smooth  delivery 
of  materials.  She  played  a  particularly  helpful  role  in  the  con- 
ceptualization and  production  of  the  popular  music  stations. 


I  am  very  grateful  to  her  for  this  and  for  her  excellent  assistance 
during  the  past  four  years.  General  Counsel  Deborah  Kanter 
has  been  supportive  throughout  the  project  and  has  guided  us 
through  several  potentially  problematic  situations;  we  are 
grateful  for  her  creative  and  enthusiastic  participation. 

Lenders  to  the  exhibition,  without  whom  it  would  have 
been  impossible  to  realize  this  project,  are  listed  on  pages 
325-27.  The  Oakland  Museum  has  been  particularly  supportive 
with  extensive  loans  and  general  advice.  We  are  grateful  to 
Director  Philip  E.  Linhares,  Senior  Curator  Harvey  L.  Jones, 
and  colleagues  Suzanne  Baizerma,  Imogen  Gieling,  Drew 
Johnson,  Karen  Tsujimoto,  and  Joy  Walker  for  their  warm 
friendship  during  this  project.  Additionally,  Director  David  A. 
Ross  and  colleagues  Janet  Bishop  and  Rose  Candelaria  of  the 
San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art  and  Robert  Flynn 
Johnson  and  Karin  Breuer  of  the  Achenbach  Center  for  the 
Graphic  Arts  of  the  Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco  have 
made  numerous  artworks  available  to  the  exhibition.  We  are 
also  especially  grateful  to  Jerome  and  Evelyn  Ackerman,  Gerald 
and  Bente  Buck,  Dr.  Louis  F.  D'Elia,  and  Michael  G.  Wilson, 
who  have  all  lent  generously  from  their  collections. 

The  concept  for  Made  in  California  relied  heavily  upon 
the  contextualization  of  artworks  from  the  last  100  years  in 
relation  to  a  rich  assortment  of  documentary  material  such  as 
travel  brochures,  posters,  letters,  telegrams,  documentary  pho- 
tographs, maps,  books,  magazines,  and  newspaper  articles.  We 
were  very  fortunate  to  be  able  to  draw  upon  the  remarkable 
reserves  of  dozens  of  special  libraries,  archives,  and  collections 
of  books  and  ephemera  throughout  the  state  in  building  this 
major  component  of  the  exhibition.  Recently  the  Getty 
Research  Institute  for  the  History  of  Art  and  the  Humanities 
published  Cultural  Inheritance  L.A.:  A  Directory  of  Less-Visible 
Archives  and  Collections  in  the  Los  Angeles  Region  (1999).  Many 
of  the  Southern  California  archives  we  consulted  are  included 
in  this  remarkable  volume.  The  following  public  and  private 
archives  have  been  particularly  generous  with  loans,  and  we  are 
grateful  to  their  directors  and  staffs  for  research  and  loan  assis- 
tance: Archives  of  American  Art,  West  Coast  Branch;  Bancroft 
Library,  University  of  California,  Berkeley;  California  Historical 
Society;  California  State  Railroad  Museum;  California  State 
University,  Northridge,  Special  Collections  and  Archives; 
Center  for  the  Study  of  Political  Graphics;  James  N.  Gamble 
House;  The  Huntington  Library,  Art  Collections,  and  Botanical 
Gardens;  Museum  of  the  Moving  Image,  Astoria,  New  York; 


National  Resource  Center,  Japanese  American  National 
Museum;  Seaver  Center  for  Western  History  Research,  Natural 
History  Museum  of  Los  Angeles  County;  San  Diego  Historical 
Society;  San  Francisco  History  Center  at  the  San  Francisco 
Public  Library;  Southwest  Museum  Library;  Archive  and 
Collections,  Universal  Studios,  Los  Angeles;  University  of 
California,  Irvine,  Special  Collections  and  University  Archives; 
University  of  California,  Los  Angeles,  Special  Collections; 
Regional  History  Center,  Department  of  Special  Collections, 
University  of  Southern  California;  and  the  Corporate  Archive, 
Warner  Brothers,  Los  Angeles. 

A  number  of  private  collectors  of  ephemeral  materials 
have  been  remarkably  helpful  and  generous  with  information 
and  loans.  We  are  particularly  grateful  to  Victoria  Dailey,  Ron 
Finley,  Shifra  Goldman,  Jim  Heimann,  Gordon  McClelland, 
John  Sonsini,  Craig  Stecyk,  and  Steve  Turner  for  their  passion 
and  commitment  to  their  subjects  and  for  lending  so  unstint- 
ingly  to  the  exhibition. 

During  the  planning  of  the  project  we  were  guided  by 
advice  and  assistance  offered  by  many  generous  individuals.  In 
addition  to  those  listed  on  page  334,  catalogue  and  anthology 
authors,  and  others  mentioned  above,  the  lacma  team  would 
like  to  thank  the  following:  Leith  Adams,  Jerome  Adamson, 
Louise  Barco  Allrich,  Susan  Anderson,  Paule  Anglim,  the  Art 
Museum  Council,  James  Bassler,  Billy  Al  and  Wendy  Bengston, 
Thomas  Benitez,  John  Berggruen,  Bill  Berkson,  Dan  Bernier, 
Maria  Berns,  Barbara  Beroza,  Janet  Blake,  Shoshana  Blank, 
Irving  Blum,  Lois  Boardman,  Rena  Bransten,  Virginia  Brier, 
Ruth  Britton,  Inez  Brooks-Myers,  John  Gaboon,  Anne  Caiger, 
G.  B.  Carson,  Roland  Charles,  Erin  Chase,  Cathy  Cherbosque, 
Bill  Clark,  Catharine  Clark,  Stephen  Cohen,  Bolton  Colburn, 
Anne  Cole,  Candace  Crockett,  Katherine  Crum,  Julie  Shafler 
Dale,  EHzabeth  Daniels,  Kimberly  Davis,  Michael  Dawson, 
Kirk  Delman,  Fames  Demetrios,  Stephen  De  Staebler,  Carlos 
Diniz,  Alan  Donant,  Jackie  M.  Dooley,  Lynn  Downey,  Dr. 
Sharon  B.  Drager,  Janice  Driesbach,  Lucia  Fames,  Kate  Flliot, 
John  English,  David  Fahey,  Patricia  Faure,  Rosamund  Felsen, 
Marc  Foxx,  Ron  and  Nancy  Frank,  Mary  Anne  Friel,  Whitney 
Ganz,  Kathleen  Garfield,  Tony  Gardner,  Ed  Gilbert,  Esther 
Ginsberg,  Ann  Goldstein,  Pat  Gomez,  Rita  Gonzalez,  Joe 
Goode,  Joni  Gordon,  Peter  Goulds,  Christopher  Grimes,  Jeff 
Gunderson,  Cheryl  Haines,  Nora  Halpern,  Gerald  Haslam, 
Kurt  Helfrich,  Kimi  Hill,  Terry  Hinte,  Henry  Hopkins,  Jan- 
Christopher  Horak,  Joyce  Hunsaker,  Rupert  Jenkins,  Christy 


Johnson,  Mark  Johnson,  Caroline  Jones,  Elaine  K.  Sewell 
Jones,  Sam  Jornlin,  Patricia  Juneker,  Alan  Jutzi,  Cindy  Keefer, 
Jeff  Kelly,  Kent  Kirkton,  Anne  Kohs,  Marti  Koplin,  Giles 
Kotcher,  Craig  Krull,  Wayne  Kuwada,  Molly  Lambert,  Susan 
Landauer,  Margo  Leavin,  Melissa  Leventon,  Leah  Levy,  Connie 
Lewellen,  Mark  Line,  Frank  Lloyd,  Pamela  Ludwig,  Susan 
Martin,  Anne  Matranga,  Signe  Mayfield,  Mathilda  McQuaid, 
Susan  Menconi,  Sharon  Merrow,  Jean  Milant,  Eudora  Moore, 
William  Moritz,  Chris  Morris,  Tobey  Moss,  Nancy  D.  W. 
Moure,  Eugene  Moy,  Maggie  Paxton  Murray,  James  Nottage, 
Octavio  Olvera,  Gordon  Onslow  Ford,  Daniel  Ostroff,  John 
Outterbridge,  Patrick  Painter,  Jang  Park,  John  Perrault, 
Jan  Peter,  Charles  Phoenix,  Bryn  Potter,  Ken  Price,  Rennie 
Pritiken,  Jeff  Rankin,  Peter  Rathbone,  Ray  Redfern,  Shaun 
Caley  Regen,  Matthew  W.  Roth,  Ramon  Ruelas,  Jack  Rutberg, 
Kay  Sakamachi,  Barry  Sanders,  Richard  Sandor,  Lawrence 
Schaffer,  Laura  Schlesinger,  Dennis  Sharp,  Susan  and  the  late 
David  Sheets,  Steven  Shortridge,  Ann  Sievers,  Patterson  Sims, 
Daniel  J.  Slive,  Rochelle  Slovin,  Weldon  Smith,  Paul  Soldner, 
Randy  Sommer,  Bill  Stern,  George  Stern,  Jean  Stern,  Louis 
Stern,  Bob  Stockdale,  Robin  Stropko,  Bob  Sweeney,  Sharon 
Tate,  Dace  Taube,  Richard  Telles,  Christa  Mayer  Thurman, 
Patricia  Trenton,  Mark  Trieb,  Cameron  Trowbridge,  Peter 
Turman,  James  Tyler,  Anna  van  der  Meulen,  Peter  Voulkos, 
Sarah  Watson,  Hannah  Wear,  Adam  Weinberg,  Katherine 
Westphal,  Kathleen  Whitaker,  Donald  Woodman,  Eric  Lloyd 
Wright,  Matthew  Yokobosky,  Richard  York,  Masha  Zakheim, 
Michael  Zakian,  and  David  Zeidberg. 

Bob  Sain,  director  of  a  new  research  and  development 
department  at  the  museum  called  LACMALab,  organized  the 
Made  in  California:  now  exhibition  in  the  Boone  Children's 
Gallery  in  collaboration  with  Lynn  Zelevansky,  Curator  of 
Modern  and  Contemporary  Art.  Eleven  Los  Angeles  artists  were 
commissioned  to  create  works  related  to  California's  cultural, 
natural,  and  built  landscape  in  the  form  of  dynamic,  interactive 
environments  for  children,  families,  and  teachers.  Artists  were 
encouraged  to  use  the  museum's  collection  as  a  resource  and 
to  involve  children  as  appropriate  in  the  planning,  fabrication, 
and  testing  of  the  installations.  For  their  participation  in  Made 
in  California:  now  we  thank  the  artists,  as  well  as  LACMALab 
Coordinator  Kelly  Carney,  Associate  Museum  Educator 
Elizabeth  Caffry,  and  graphic  designer  Amy  McFarland,  as  well 
as  architects  Elaine  Rene-Weissman  and  Hsuan-ying  Chou  for 
their  imaginative  design  of  the  exhibition. 


^EDGMENTS 


Our  colleagues  Ian  Birnie,  Head  of  Film  Programs,  and 
Dorrance  Stalvey,  Head  of  Music  Programs,  have  each  embraced 
the  opportunity  to  plan  innovative  and  extensive  programs 
during  the  run  of  the  exhibition.  Both  were  integral  members 
of  the  exhibition  team.  They  were  assisted  by  Tom  Vick  and 
Annissa  Lui,  respectively.  Birnie  organized  nine  thematic  film 
series  on  aspects  of  California  cinema,  ft-om  iconic  crime  films 
to  a  weekend  of  John  Steinbeck.  Stalvey  planned  four  concerts, 
ranging  from  the  works  of  emigres  Arnold  Schoenberg  and  Igor 
Stravinsky  to  the  avant-garde  composers  of  the  1960s. 

Although  all  major  exhibitions  rely  on  a  significant  team 
of  museum  professionals,  a  project  of  this  magnitude  neces- 
sarily tapped  and  challenged  an  extensive  range  of  talents  at 
LACMA.  The  audiovisual,  conservation,  operations,  and  art 
preparation  and  installation  departments  all  merit  special 
attention  for  their  efforts,  as  does  the  registrar's  office.  The 
exhibition  programs  department,  led  by  Assistant  Director 
Irene  Martin,  expertly  and  gracefully  oversaw  all  phases  of  the 
project.  For  their  enthusiastic  and  hands-on  assistance  we  are 
profoundly  grateful  to  Coordinator  Christine  W.  Lazzaretto, 
who  kept  us  on  track,  and  to  Beverley  Sabo,  Financial  Analyst, 
who  kept  us  within  budget.  Assistant  Director  of  Collections 
Management  Renee  Montgomery,  Registrar  Ted  Greenberg, 
Assistant  Registrar  Christine  Vigiletti,  and  the  registrarial  staff 
were  key  to  the  assembly  of  more  than  1,000  objects  from 
local,  domestic,  and  foreign  sources.  For  their  expert  handling 
of  the  deinstallation  of  the  permanent  collection  and  a  com- 
plicated installation  schedule,  we  are  grateful  to  Manager  of 
Art  Preparation  and  Installation  Lawrence  Waung  and  his 
staff.  Victoria  Blyth  Hill,  Director  of  Conservation,  and  our 
capable  team  of  conservators  Don  Menveg,  furniture;  Sabrina 
Carli,  John  Hirx,  Vanessa  Muros,  and  Maureen  Russell,  objects; 
Joe  Fronek  and  Virginia  Rasmussen,  paintings;  Margot  Healey 
and  Chail  Norton,  paper;  and  Catherine  McLean  and  Susan 
Schmalz,  textiles,  readied  numerous  works  for  presentation 
and  found  imaginative  solutions  to  display  problems. 

The  divisions  of  administration  and  external  affairs, 
under  the  direction  of  Senior  Vice  President  Melody  Kanschat, 
responded  sensitively  to  the  challenges  posed  by  the  exhibition. 
Mark  Mitchell,  Budget  and  Financial  Planning  Officer,  pro- 
vided critical  budgetary  guidance.  Assistant  Vice  President  of 
Protective  Services  Erroll  Southers  was  effective  at  anticipating 
many  situations  involving  our  visitors.  Art  Owens,  Assistant 
Vice  President,  Operations  and  Facility  Planning,  approached 


the  responsibility  of  constructing  a  complex  45,000-square-foot 
installation,  as  well  as  the  installation  of  Made  in  California: 
NOW,  with  his  customary  great  skill.  He  was  ably  assisted  by 
Bill  Stahl,  Manager  of  Construction,  and  his  staff.  In  collabora- 
tion with  Peter  Kirby,  Megan  Mellbye,  Ken  Olsen,  and  Elvin 
Whitesides  of  the  audiovisual  department  provided  extensive 
technical  assistance.  Assistant  Director  of  Communications  and 
Marketing  Keith  McKeown  and  staff  members  Adam  Coyne, 
Kirsten  Schmidt,  Mark  Thie,  and  Janine  Vigus  oversaw  Made  in 
California  press  and  marketing. 

The  education  and  public  programs  division  at  lacma 
played  a  critical  role  in  the  development  and  interpretation  of 
Made  in  California.  The  educational  aspect  of  the  exhibition 
was  paramount  from  the  beginning.  We  were  committed  to 
creating  an  exhibition  that  would  work  on  a  variety  of  levels 
and  for  a  diverse  audience.  Our  education  team  has  been 
instrumental  in  achieving  this  goal.  Jane  Burrell,  Chief,  Art 
Museum  Education,  provided  invaluable  assistance  throughout 
the  project.  Bridget  Cooks,  Assistant  Museum  Educator,  Special 
Exhibitions,  worked  closely  on  the  planning  and  implementa- 
tion of  the  exhibition's  educational  components.  Cooks  has 
been  an  integral  member  of  the  team  from  the  outset,  and  her 
counsel  and  enthusiasm  have  been  much  appreciated  by  all. 
We  are  grateful  to  Paul  Holdengraber  of  the  lacma  Institute 
for  Art  and  Cultures  and  to  Bob  Sain  of  LACMALab,  who 
planned  a  number  of  events  related  to  Made  in  California. 
Writer  Barbara  Isenberg  conducted  a  number  of  fascinating 
interviews  with  artists,  excerpts  from  which  were  included  in 
the  exhibition  and  audio  tour. 

Garrett  White,  Director  of  Publications,  has  ably  over- 
seen development  and  production  of  this  catalogue  and  the 
related  anthology  volume.  I  am  indebted  to  him  for  his  guid- 
ance throughout,  lacma  editors  Nola  Butler  and  Thomas  Frick 
undertook  the  critical  role  of  editing  the  two  volumes.  They 
sensitively  shaped  the  texts  of  more  than  two  dozen  authors 
with  skill  and  consummate  professionalism.  Additional  editor- 
ial assistance  was  provided  by  lacma  Associate  Editor 
Margaret  Gray,  along  with  Michelle  Ghaffari  and  Denise  Pierre. 
Both  publications  relied  upon  new  and  existing  photography. 
We  thank  Peter  Brenner,  Supervising  Photographer, 
Photographic  Services,  and  staff  member  Steve  Oliver  for  over- 
seeing quality  control  of  the  images.  Cheryle  Robertson, 
Coordinator  of  Rights  and  Reproductions,  assisted  by  Giselle 
Arteaga- Johnson,  Shaula  Coyl,  and  Joey  Crawford,  skillfully 


LACMA  Made  in  California 
Programmatic  'leam 


oversaw  the  daunting  task  of  securing  licensing  agreements  for 
hundreds  of  images  in  the  exhibition  and  related  publications. 

The  extraordinary  design  of  the  present  catalogue  is  the 
work  of  Senior  Designer  Scott  Taylor;  assistance  with  the  layout 
of  the  anthology  volume  was  provided  by  Theresa  Velazquez. 
Working  closely  with  curators  and  editors,  Taylor  contributed 
immeasurably  to  the  content  of  the  volume,  and  his  thoughtful 
treatment  of  text  and  images  is  a  credit  to  the  entire  project. 
We  are  deeply  indebted  to  him  not  only  for  his  design  of  the 
publications  but  also  for  his  supervision  and  execution  of  the 
exhibition  design,  accomplished  in  collaboration  with  designers 
Sandhaus,  Durfee,  and  Regn.  Rachel  Ware  Zooi  oversaw  the 
production  of  both  volumes,  assisted  by  Chris  Coniglio  and 
Karen  Knapp.  Additional  assistance  was  provided  by  lacma 
graphic  designers  Katherine  Go,  Amy  McFarland,  Paul  Wehby, 
and  Daniel  Young,  along  with  outside  designer  Agnes  Sexty.  At 
UC  Press,  it  was  a  pleasure  to  work  with  Director  Jim  Clark 
and  Fine  Arts  Editor  Deborah  Kirshman  and  their  staff. 

This  undertaking  began  many  years  ago  with  the  idea  of 
exploring  the  richness  and  complexity  of  twentieth-century  art 
in  the  state  of  California.  Although  not  without  challenges,  the 
opportunity  to  bring  together  colleagues  with  different  points 
of  view  and  varying  frames  of  reference  has  been  thoroughly 
exciting,  surprising,  and  above  all  rewarding.  The  success  of 
Made  in  California  is  perhaps  measured  by  the  fact  that  it  is 
ultimately  far  richer  and  more  varied  than  any  one  of  us  could 
have  achieved  or  for  that  matter  even  imagined  alone.  This 
team  approach,  favored  at  the  moment  by  a  number  of  fellow 
institutions  in  New  York  and  Europe,  may  signal  a  new  chapter 
in  museum  exhibitions  and  presentation  strategies.  We  are 
profoundly  grateful  to  all  of  the  many  colleagues  whose  con- 
tributions helped  to  create  Made  in  California. 

Finally,  as  a  native  New  Yorker  but  a  resident  of 
California  since  the  mid-1970s,  I  have  long  been  intrigued  by 
the  complexity  of  California's  image  and  the  role  artists  have 
played  in  the  state's  history.  I  would  like  to  thank  my  son  Max, 
a  native  Californian,  who  has  helped  his  mother  learn  and 
understand  so  much  about  the  richness  and  diversity  of  this 
remarkable  state. 

Stephanie  Barron 

Vice  President  of  Education  and  Public  Programs 
Senior  Curator  of  Modern  and  Contemporary  Art 


Stephanie  Barron 

Senior  Curator,  Modern  and 
Contemporary  Art;  Vice  President, 
Education  and  Public  Programs 

Sheri  Bernstein 

Exhibition  Associate 

Ian  Birnie 

Head  of  Film  Programs 

Victor  Carlson 

Curator  of  Prints  and  Drawings 
(retired  2/00) 

Bridget  Cooks 

Assistant  Educator,  Education 
Department 

Bruce  S.  Davis 

Curator  of  Prints  and  Drawings 
(deceased) 

Carol  S.  Eliel 

Curator  of  Modern  and 
Contemporary  Art 

llene  Susan  Fort 

Curator  of  American  Art 


1  N.  Fox 

Curator  of  Modern  and 
Contemporary  Art 

Dale  Gluckman 

Curator  of  Costume  and  Textiles 


Sharon  I 

Curatorial  Assistant,  Prints  and  Drawings' 

Peter  Kirby 

Curator  of  New  Media  (Adjunct) 

Jo  Lauria 

Assistant  Curator  of  Decorative  Arts 

Kaye  Spilker 

Assistant  Curator  of  Costume  and  Textiles 

Dorrance  Stalvey 

Head  of  Music  Programs 

Sharon  Takeda 

Curator  of  Costume  and  Textiles 

Tim  B.  Wride 

Associate  Curator  of  Photography 

Lynn  Zelevansky 

Curator  of  Modern  and 
Contemporary  Art 


Participants  in  Made  in  California 
Advisory  Meetings,  1997-1998 


Rodolfo  Acufia 

Professor  of  Chicano/a  Studies,  California 
State  University,  Northridge 

Ron  Alcalay 

Film  historian  and  author 

Blake  Allmendinger 

Professor  of  English,  University  of 
California,  Los  Angeles 

David  Avalos 

Professor  of  Visual  and  Performing  Arts, 
California  State  University,  San  Marcos 

Anne  Ay  res 

Director  of  Exhibitions,  Graduate  Studies 
Faculty,  Otis  College  of  Art  and  Design, 
Los  Angeles 

Aaron  Betsky 

Curator  of  Architecture,  Design,  and 
Digital  Projects,  San  Francisco  Museum  of 
Modern  Art 

John  F.  Bowles 

Ph.D.  candidate,  Art  History,  University 
of  California,  Los  Angeles 

Leo  Braudy 

Professor  and  Chair,  Department  of 
English,  University  of  Southern  California 

Richard  Candida  Smith 

Associate  Professor  of  History,  University 
of  Michigan 

Bernard  Cooper 

Author;  Instructor  of  Creative  Writing, 
Antioch  University 

Margaret  Crawford 

Professor  of  Urban  Planning  and  Design 
Theory,  Graduate  School  of  Design, 
Harvard  University 

Robert  Dawidoff 

Professor  of  History,  Claremont  Graduate 
University 

Michael  Dear 

Professor  of  Geography  and  Director  of 
Southern  California  Studies  Center, 
University  of  Southern  California 

Bram  Dijkstra 

Cultural  historian;  Professor  of  American 
and  Comparative  Literature,  University  of 
California,  San  Diego 


John  Espey 

Author;  Emeritus  Professor  of  English, 
University  of  California,  Los  Angeles 

Robbert  Flick 

Photographer;  Professor  of  Art,  University 
of  Southern  California 

Michael  Golino 

Director  of  Projects,  InSITE  2000 

Merril  Greene 

Author  and  film  producer 

Lisbeth  Haas 

Associate  Professor  of  History,  University 
of  California,  Santa  Cruz 

Anthony  Hernandez 

Photographer 

Karin  Higa 

Director  of  Curatorial  and  Exhibitions 
Department,  Senior  Curator  of  Art, 
Japanese  American  National  Museum, 
Los  Angeles 

Thomas  S.  Hines 

Professor  of  History  of  Architecture  and 
Urban  Design,  University  of  California, 

Los  Angeles 

Gregory  Hise 

Professor  of  Urban  History  and  Planning, 
University  of  Southern  California 

Paul  Holdengrdber 

Director,  lacma  Institute  for  Art  and 
Cultures 

Barbara  Isenberg 

Author/journalist 

Steven  Isoardi 

Researcher  and  interviewer.  Central 
Avenue  Sounds  Series,  University  of 
California,  Los  Angeles,  Oral  History 
Program 

David  James 

Professor  of  Critical  Studies,  School  of 
Cinema-Television,  University  of  Southern 
California 

Paul  J.  Karlstrom 

Regional  Director,  Archives  of  American 
Art,  Smithsonian  Institution  at  The 
Huntington  Library 


Elaine  Kim 

Professor  of  Ethnic  Studies,  University  of 
California,  Berkeley 

Anthony  Kirk 

American  cultural  and  environmental 
historian 

Norman  M.  Klein 

Professor  of  Critical  Studies,  California 
Institute  of  the  Arts,  Valencia 

Christopher  Knight 

Art  critic,  Los  Angeles  Times 

Steven  D.  Lavine 

President,  California  Institute  of  the  Arts, 
Valencia 

George  Lipsitz 

Professor  of  Ethnic  Studies,  University  of 
California,  San  Diego 

Valerie  Matsumoto 

Associate  Professor  of  History,  University 
of  California,  Los  Angeles 

Rick  Moss 

Program  Manager  and  Curator  of  History, 
California  African  American  Museum, 
Los  Angeles 

Margarita  Nieto 

Professor  of  Chicano/a  Studies,  California 
State  University,  Northridge 

Chon  A.  Noriega 

Associate  Professor  of  Critical  Studies, 
School  of  Theater,  Film,  and  Television, 
University  of  California,  Los  Angeles 

Andrew  Perchuck 

Ph.D.  candidate.  History  of  Art,  Yale 
University 

Susan  Phillips 

Lecturer,  Department  of  Anthropology, 
University  of  California,  Los  Angeles 

Dana  Polan 

Chair,  Division  of  Critical  Studies,  School 
of  Cinema-Television,  University  of 
Southern  California 

Ralph  Rugoff 

Director,  California  College  of  Arts  and 
Crafts  Institute 

Carolyn  See 

Author;  Adjunct  Professor  of  English, 
University  of  California,  Los  Angeles 


Rebecca  Solnit 

Essayist  and  historian 

Lynn  Spigel 

Professor  of  Critical  Studies,  School  of 
Cinema-Television,  University  of  Southern 
California 

Kevin  Starr 

State  Librarian  of  California;  University 
Professor,  University  of  Southern 
California 

Steve  Wasserman 

Editor,  Book  Review,  Los  Angeles  Times 

Cecile  Whiting 

Professor  of  Art  History,  University  of 
California,  Los  Angeles 

Robert  Winter 

Professor  of  History,  Emeritus,  Occidental 
College 

Charles  Wollenberg 

Professor  of  History,  Chair  of  Social 
Sciences,  Vista  Community  CoOege 

Sally  Woodbridge 

Architectural  critic  and  historian 

Victor  Zamudio-Taylor 

Curator  of  International  Exhibitions, 
Institute  of  Visual  Arts,  University  of 
Wisconsin,  Milwaukee;  Advisor,  Televisa 
Cultural  Foundation,  Mexico  City 


SELECTED   BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Compiled  by  )ohii  l,)lt 


The  works  listed  in  this  bibliography  were 
either  used  in  the  conceptualization  of  the  exhi- 
bition or  are  recommended  for  further  reading. 
Selections  were  divided  into  two  categories, 
"Visual  Art"  and  "History  and  Culture,"  the 
latter  of  which  includes  fiction  and  literary 
nonfiction.  An  effort  was  made  to  cite  works 
accessible  to  the  general  public  (no  disserta- 
tions, specialized  journals,  or  archival  materi- 
als). In  addition,  this  bibliography  focuses  on 
the  last  fifteen  years  of  scholarship,  a  period 
of  genuine  florescence  for  California  studies. 
Readers  curious  about  specific  topics,  person- 
alities, media,  or  communities  may  use  the 
works  enumerated  as  a  springboard  for  further 
inquiry,  since  many  include  useful  bibliogra- 
phies as  well. 

Like  the  Made  in  California  exhibition 
itself,  the  bibliography  is  necessarily  selective. 
Relevant  exhibition  catalogues  alone  number  in 
the  hundreds;  therefore,  it  would  be  impossible 
to  provide  here  a  truly  comprehensive  guide  to 
writings  on  California  art,  culture,  and  history. 
Due  to  space  limitations,  it  was  necessary  to 
omit  monographs  on  individual  artists.  The 
bibliography  at  hand  concentrates  instead  on 
examinations  of  broad  trends.  Similarly,  this 
list  includes  studies  of  the  culture  and  history 
of  Hollywood  rather  than  explications  of  indi- 
vidual films.  Finally,  this  bibliography  was  not 
conceived  as  a  literary  "greatest  hits"  but  is 
directed  toward  those  works,  fictional  and 
nonfictional,  that  were  informed  by  and  in  turn 
contributed  to  the  image  of  California. 


Adams,  Ansel,  and  Toyo  Miyatake.  Two  Views  of 
Manzanar:  An  Exhibition  of  Photographs.  Exh. 
cat.  Los  Angeles:  Wight  Art  Gallery,  ucla,  1978. 

Albright,  Thomas.  Art  in  the  San  Francisco  Bay 
Area,  1945-1980.  Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles: 
University  of  California  Press,  1985. 

Amerika  ni  ikita  Nikkeijin  gakatachi:  kibo  to 
kuno  no  hanseiki,  1896-1945  (Japanese  and 
Japanese  American  Painters  in  the  United 
States:  A  Half  Century  of  Hope  and  Suffering, 
1896-1945).  Tokyo:  Tokyo  Metropolitan  Teien 
Art  Museum  in  association  with  Nihon  Terebi 
Hosomo,  1995. 

Andersen,  Timothy  ).,  Eudorah  M.  Moore,  and 
Robert  W.  Winter,  eds.  California  Design  1910. 
Exh.  cat.  Pasadena:  Pasadena  Center.  Pasadena: 
California  Design  Publications,  1974. 

Anderson,  Susan  M.,  and  Robert  Henning  Jr. 
Regionalism,  the  California  View:  Watercolors, 
1929-1945.  Exh.  cat.  Santa  Barbara:  Santa 
Barbara  Museum  of  Art,  1988. 

Art  in  California:  A  Survey  of  American  Art  with 
Special  Reference  to  Californian  Painting, 
Sculpture,  and  Architecture  Past  and  Present, 
Particularly  as  Those  Arts  Were  Represented  at 
the  Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition. 
Exh.  cat.  1916.  Reprint,  Irvine:  Westphal 
Publishing,  1988. 

Bailey,  Margaret  J.  Those  Glorious  Glamour 
Years:  The  Great  Hollywood  Costume  Designs  of 
the  1930s.  Secaucus,  N.J.:  Citadel  Press,  1982. 

Baird,  Joseph  Armstrong,  Jr.,  ed.  From 
Exposition  to  Exposition:  Progressive  to 
Conservative  Northern  California  Painting, 
1915-1939-  Sacramento:  Crocker  Art  Museum, 
1981. 

Baldon,  Cleo,  and  lb  Melchior.  Reflections  on 
the  Pool:  California  Designs  for  Swimming. 
New  York:  Rizzoli,  1997. 

Banham,  Reyner.  Los  Angeles:  The  Architecture  of 
Four  Ecologies.  1971.  Reprint,  Hammondsworth, 
Eng.:  Penguin  Books,  1990. 

Barron,  Stephanie.  Art  in  Los  Angeles:  The 
Museum  as  Site — Sixteen  Projects.  Exh.  cat. 
Los  Angeles:  Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of 
Art,  1981. 


,  ed.  California:  Five  Footnotes  to  Modern 

Art  History.  Exh.  cat.  Los  Angeles:  Los  Angeles 
County  Museum  of  Art,  1977. 

Beard,  Tyler.  One  Hundred  Years  of  Western 
Wear.  Layton,  Utah:  Gibbs  Smith,  1993. 

Belloli,  Jay,  et  al.  Radical  Past:  Contemporary  Art 
and  Music  in  Pasadena,  1960-1974.  Pasadena: 
Armory  Center  for  the  Arts  and  Art  Center 
College  of  Design,  1999. 

Betsky,  Aaron,  et  al.  Experimental  Architecture  in 
Los  Angeles.  Los  Angeles:  Los  Angeles  Forum  for 
Architecture  and  Urban  Design  in  association 
with  Rizzoli,  New  York,  1991. 

Bibby,  Brian.  The  Fine  Art  of  California  Indian 
Basketry.  Exh.  cat.  Sacramento:  Crocker  Art 
Museum  in  association  with  Heyday  Books, 
1996. 

Boas,  Nancy.  Society  of  Six:  California  Colorists. 
San  Francisco:  Bedford  Arts  Publishers,  1988. 

The  Border  Art  Workshop,  1984-1989.  Exh.  cat. 
San  Diego:  Border  Art  Workshop/Taller  de  Arte 
Fronterizo,  1988. 

Bray,  Hazel  V.  The  Potter's  Art  in  California, 
1885-1955.  Exh.  cat.  Oakland:  Oakland  Museum, 
1980. 

Breuer,  Karin,  Ruth  E.  Fine,  and  Steven  Nash. 
Thirty-Five  Years  at  Crown  Point  Press:  Making 
Prints,  Doing  Art.  Exh.  cat.  San  Francisco:  Fine 
Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco  in  association 
with  University  of  California  Press,  Berkeley  " 
and  Los  Angeles,  1997. 

Brookman,  Philip,  and  Guillermo  Gomez-Pena, 
eds.  Made  in  Aztldn.  Exh.  cat.  San  Diego:  Centro 
Cultural  de  la  Raza,  1986. 

Broude,  Norma,  and  Mary  Garrard,  eds.  The 
Power  of  Feminist  Art:  The  American  Movement 
of  the  1970s,  History  and  Impact.  New  York: 
Harry  N.  Abrams,  1994. 

Brown,  Kathan,  ed.  Ink,  Paper,  Metal,  Wood: 
Painters  and  Sculptors  at  Crown  Point  Press. 
San  Francisco:  Chronicle  Books,  1996. 

Brown,  Michael  D.  Views  from  Asian  California, 
1920-1965:  An  Illustrated  History.  San  Francisco: 
Michael  Brown,  1992. 

Bullis,  Douglas.  Art  and  Style:  California  Fashion 
Designers.  Layton,  Utah:  Gibbs  Smith,  1987. 


SELECTED    B  I  B L I  0 G R ( 


Butterfield,  Ian.  The  Art  of  Light  and  Space. 
New  York:  Abbeville  Press,  1993. 

California  Arts  Commission.  The  Arts  in 
Cahfornia:  A  Report  to  the  Governor  and  the 
Legislature  by  the  California  Arts  Commission  on 
the  Cultural  and  Artistic  Resources  of  the  State  of 
California.  Sacramento:  California  Arts 
Commission,  1966. 

California  Women  in  Crafts:  An  Invitational 
Exhibition  Recognizing  Women  in  Creative 
Leadership  Roles  in  Contemporary  Craft  Forms 
and  Media.  Exh.  cat.  Los  Angeles:  Craft  and 
Folk  Art  Museum,  1977. 

Candida  Smith,  Richard.  Utopia  and  Dissent: 
Art,  Poetry,  and  Politics  in  California.  Berkeley 
and  Los  Angeles:  University  of  California  Press, 
1995- 

Charles,  Roland,  and  Toyomi  Igus,  eds. 
Life  in  a  Day  of  Black  LA.:  The  Way  We  See  It— 
L.A.'s  Black  Photographers  Present  a  New 
Perspective  on  Their  City.  Exh.  cat.  Los  Angeles: 
CAAS  Publications,  University  of  California, 
Los  Angeles,  1992. 

Clearwater,  Bonnie,  ed.  West  Coast  Duchamp. 
Exh.  cat.  Santa  Monica:  Shoshana  Wayne 
Gallery  in  association  with  Grassfield  Press, 
Miami  Beach,  1991. 

Cockcroft,  Eva  Sperling,  and  Holly  Barnet- 
Sanchez,  eds.  Signs  from  the  Heart:  California 
Chicano  Murals.  1990.  Reprint,  Albuquerque: 
University  of  New  Mexico  Press;  Venice:  Social 
and  Public  Art  Resource  Center,  1993. 

Colburn,  Bolton  T.  Across  the  Street:  Self-Help 
Graphics  and  Chicano  Art  in  Los  Angeles.  Exh. 
cat.  Laguna  Beach:  Laguna  Art  Museum,  1995- 

Constantine,  Mildred,  and  Jack  Lenor  Larsen. 
The  Art  Fabric:  Mainstream.  Exh.  cat.  New  York: 
Van  Nostrand  Reinhold,  1980. 

Contemporary  Art:  Official  Catalog,  Department 
of  Fine  Arts,  Division  of  Contemporary  Painting 
and  Sculpture.  Exh.  cat.  San  Francisco:  Golden 
Gate  International  Exposition,  Department  of 
Fine  Arts,  1939. 

Crowe,  Michael  F.  Deco  by  the  Bay:  Art  Deco 
Architecture  in  the  San  Francisco  Bay  Area. 
New  York:  Viking  Studio  Books,  1995. 

Dale,  lulie  Schaller.  Art  to  Wear.  New  York: 
Abbeville  Press,  1986. 

Davis,  Bruce.  Made  in  L.A.:  The  Prints  of  Cirrus 
Editions.  Exh.  cat.  Los  Angeles:  Los  Angeles 
County  Museum  of  Art,  1995. 


de  Alcuaz,  Marie.  Ceci  nest  pas  le  Surrealisme: 
California,  Idioms  of  Surrealism.  Exh.  cat. 
Los  Angeles:  Fisher  Gallery,  University  of 
Southern  California,  in  association  with  Art  in 
California  Books,  Los  Angeles,  1983. 

Desmarais,  Charles.  Proof  Los  Angeles  Art  and 
Photography,  1960-1980.  Exh.  cat.  Laguna 
Beach:  Laguna  Art  Museum  in  association  with 
the  Fellows  of  Contemporary  Art,  1992. 

The  Dilexi  Years:  1958-1970.  Exh.  cat.  Oakland; 
Oakland  Museum,  1984. 

Dominik,  Janet  Blake.  Early  Artists  in  Laguna 
Beach:  The  Impressionists.  Exh  cat.  Laguna 
Beach:  Laguna  Art  Museum,  1986. 

Draher,  Patricia,  ed.  The  Chicano  Codices: 
Encountering  the  Art  of  the  Americas.  Exh.  cat. 
San  Francisco:  Mexican  Museum,  1992. 

Drescher,  Tim.  San  Francisco  Bay  Area  Mi4rals: 
Communities  Create  Their  Muses,  1904-1997. 
3d  ed.  St.  Paul:  Pogo  Press,  1998. 

Dunitz,  Robin  I.,  and  lames  Prigoff.  Painting 
the  Towns:  Murals  of  California.  Los  Angeles; 
RjD  Enterprises,  1997. 

Ehrlich,  Susan,  ed.  Pacific  Dreams:  Currents 
of  Surrealism  and  Fantasy  in  California  Art, 
1934-1957.  Exh.  cat.  Los  Angeles:  Armand 
Hammer  Museum  of  Art  and  Cultural  Center, 
University  of  California,  Los  Angeles,  1995. 

Fahey,  David,  and  Linda  Rich.  Masters  of 
Starlight:  Photographers  in  Hollywood.  Exh.  cat. 
Los  Angeles:  Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of 
Art,  1987. 

Feinblatt,  Ebria.  Los  Angeles  Prints,  1883-1980. 
Exh.  cat.  Los  Angeles:  Los  Angeles  County 
Museum  of  Art,  1980. 

Fifty  California  Artists.  Exh.  cat.  San  Francisco: 
San  Francisco  Museum  of  Art,  with  the  assis- 
tance of  the  Los  Angeles  County  Museum, 
1962. 

Fine,  Ruth  E.  Gemini  G.E.L.:  Art  and 
Collaboration.  Exh.  cat.  Washington,  D.C.: 
National  Gallery  of  Art  in  association  with 
Abbeville  Press,  New  York,  1984. 

Finson,  Bruce,  ed.  Rolling  Renaissance: 
San  Francisco  Underground  Art  in  Celebration, 
1945-1968.  Exh.  cat.  San  Francisco:  Intersection 
and  the  Glide  Urban  Center,  1968. 

Flint,  lanet  A.,  ed.  Eight  from  California.  Exh. 
cat.  VV'ashington,  D.C.:  National  Collection  of 
Fine  Arts,  Smithsonian  Institution,  1974. 

Foley,  Suzanne.  Space,  Time,  Sound:  Conceptual 
Art  in  the  San  Francisco  Bay  Area:  The  1970s. 
Exh.  cat.  San  Francisco:  San  Francisco  Museum 
of  Modern  Art,  1981. 


Fort,  Ilene  Susan,  and  Arnold  Skolnick,  eds. 
Paintings  of  California.  Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles: 
University  of  California  Press,  1997. 

Forty  Years  of  California  Assemblage.  Exh.  cat. 
Los  Angeles:  Wight  Art  Gallery,  ucla,  1989. 

Four  Leaders  in  Glass.  Exh.  cat.  Los  Angeles; 
Craft  and  Folk  Art  Museum,  1980. 

Friis-Hansen,  Dana,  et  al.,  eds.  LA.  Hot  and 
Cool:  The  Eighties.  Exh.  cat.  Cambridge;  List 
Visual  Arts  Center  in  association  with  mit 
Press,  1987. 

Gauss,  Kathleen.  New  American  Photography. 
Exh.  cat.  Los  Angeles;  Los  Angeles  County 
Museum  of  Art,  1983. 

Gauss,  Kathleen,  and  Sheryl  Conkelton. 
Deliberate  Investigations:  Recent  Works  by  Four 
Los  Angeles  Artists.  Exh.  cat.  Los  Angeles: 
Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art,  1989. 

Gebhard,  David.  Architecture  in  California, 
1868-1968.  Exh.  cat.  Santa  Barbara;  Art  Gallery, 
University  of  California,  Santa  Barbara,  in 
association  with  the  Standard  Printing  of 
Santa  Barbara,  1968. 

.  Los  Angeles  in  the  Thirties,  1931-1941. 

Los  Angeles;  Hennessey  and  Ingalls,  1989. 

Gerdts,  William  H.,  ed.  All  Things  Bright  and 
Beautiful:  California  Impressionist  Paintings 
from  the  Irvine  Museum.  Exh.  cat.  Irvine;  Irvine 
Museum,  1998. 

Goldman,  Shifra.  "A  Public  Voice;  Fifteen  Years 
of  Chicano  Posters."  Art  Journal  44,  no.  1 
(spring  1984):  50-57- 

Goldstone,  Bud,  and  Arloa  Paquin  Goldstone. 
The  Los  Angeles  Watts  Towers.  Los  Angeles: 
Getty  Conservation  Institute  and  the  J.  Paul 
Getty  Museum,  1997. 

Griswold  del  Castillo,  Richard,  et  al.,  eds. 
Chicano  Art:  Resistance  and  Affirmation, 
1965-1985.  Los  Angeles:  Wight  Art  Gallery, 
UCLA,  1991. 

Hailey,  Gene,  ed.  California  Art  Research.  20 
vols.  1936-37.  Microfiche  reprint,  intro.  and  rev. 
by  Ellen  Schwartz,  La  Jolla:  L.  McGilvery,  1987. 

Halpern,  Nora,  and  Amy  Winter.  Dynaton — 
Before  and  Beyond:  Works  by  Lee  Mullican, 
Gordon  Onslow  Ford,  and  Wolfgang  Paalen. 
Exh.  cat.  Malibu:  Frederick  R.  Weisman 
Museum  of  Art,  Pepperdine  University,  1992. 

Hart,  James  David.  Fine  Printing  in  California. 
Berkeley:  California  Library  Association,  i960. 

Heimann,  Jim,  and  Rip  Georges.  California 
Crazy:  Roadside  Vernacular  Architecture. 
San  Francisco;  Chronicle  Books,  1980. 


Heyman,  Therese  Thau,  ed.  Picturing  California: 
A  Century  of  Photographic  Genius.  Exh.  cat. 
Oakland:  Oakland  Museum  in  association  with 
Chronicle  Books,  San  Francisco,  HJ89. 

.  Seeing  Straight:  The  f  64  Revohition  in 

Photography.  Exh.  cat.  Oakland:  Oakland 
Museum,  1992. 

Higa,  Karen  M.  The  View  from  Within:  Japanese 
American  Art  from  the  Internment  Camps, 
1942-1945.  Exh.  cat.  Los  Angeles:  Japanese 
American  National  Museum;  Wight  Art  Gallery, 
ucla;  and  the  Asian-American  Studies  Center, 
UCLA,  1992. 

Hively,  William,  ed.  Nine  Classic  California 
Photographers.  Exh.  cat.  Berkeley:  Friends  of  the 
Bancroft  Library,  University  of  California,  1980. 

Hopkins,  Henry  T.  Painting  and  Sculpture  in 
California:  The  Modern  Era.  Exh.  cat.  San 
Francisco:  San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern 
Art;  Washington,  D.C.:  National  Collection  of 
Fine  Arts,  Smithsonian  Institution,  1977. 

.  Fifty  West  Coast  Artists:  A  Critical 

Selection  of  Painters  and  Sculptors  Working  in 
California.  San  Francisco:  Chronicle  Books, 
1981. 

Hughes,  Edan  M.  Artists  in  California, 
1786-1940.  id  ed.  San  Francisco:  Hughes 
Publishing  Co.,  1989. 

Hurlburt,  Laurance  P.  The  Mexican  Muralists  in 
the  United  States.  Albuquerque:  University  of 
New  Mexico  Press,  1989. 

Impressionism,  The  California  View:  Paintings, 
1890-1930.  Exh.  cat.  Oakland:  Oakland 
Museum,  1981. 

Ingle,  Marjorie  I.  The  Mayan  Revival  Style:  Art 
Deco  Mayan  Fantasy.  Salt  Lake  City:  Peregrine 
Smith  Books,  1984. 

Isenberg,  Barbara.  State  of  the  Arts:  California 
Artists  Talk  about  Their  Work.  New  York: 
HarperCollins,  2000. 

James,  George  Wharton.  Indian  Basketry.  3d  ed., 
rev.  and  enl.,  1903.  Reprint,  Glorieta,  N.M.: 
Rio  Grande  Press,  1970. 

Jewett,  Masha  Zakheim.  Coit  Tower,  San  Francisco: 
Its  History  and  Art.  San  Francisco:  Volcano 
Press,  1983. 

Johnstone,  Mark.  Contemporary  Art  in  Southern 
California.  Sydney:  Craftsman  House,  G  and  B 
Arts  International,  1999. 


Jones,  Amelia,  et  al.  Sexual  Politics:  Judy 
Chicago's  "Dinner  Party"  in  Feminist  Art  History. 
Exh.  cat.  Los  Angeles:  Armand  Hammer 
Museum  of  Art  and  Cultural  Center,  University 
of  California,  Los  Angeles,  in  association  with 
University  of  California  Press,  Berkeley  and 
Los  Angeles,  1996. 

Jones,  Caroline  A.  Bay  Area  Figurative  Art, 
J950-J965.  Exh.  cat.  San  Francisco:  San  Francisco 
Museum  of  Modern  Art  in  association  with 
University  of  California  Press,  Berkeley  and 
Los  Angeles,  1990. 

Jones,  Harvey.  San  Francisco:  The  Painted  City. 
Salt  Lake  City:  Peregrine  Smith  Books,  1992. 

Kamerling,  Bruce  A.  "Theosophy  and  Symbolist 
Art:  The  Point  Loma  School."  Journal  of 
San  Diego  History  26,  no.  4  (fall  1980). 

.  One  Hundred  Years  of  Art  in  San  Diego: 

Selections  from  the  Collection  of  the  San  Diego 
Historical  Society.  Exh.  cat.  San  Diego:  San  Diego 
Historical  Society,  1991. 

Kaplan,  Sam  Hall.  LA.  Lost  and  Found:  An 
Architectural  History  of  Los  Angeles.  New  York: 
Crown,  1987. 

Karlstrom,  Paul  J.,  ed.  On  the  Edge  of  America: 
California  Modernist  Art,  1900-1950.  Berkeley 
and  Los  Angeles:  University  of  California  Press, 
1996. 

Karlstrom,  Paul  J.,  and  Susan  Ehrlich.  Turning 
the  Tide:  Early  Los  Angeles  Modernists,  1920-1956. 
Exh.  cat.  Santa  Barbara:  Santa  Barbara  Museum 
of  Art,  1990. 

Katzman,  Louise.  Photography  in  California, 
1945-1980.  Exh.  cat.  San  Francisco:  San  Francisco 
Museum  of  Modern  Art  in  association  with 
Hudson  Hills  Press,  New  York,  1984. 

Knight,  Christopher.  Last  Chance  for  Eden: 
Selected  Art  Criticism  by  Christopher  Knight, 
1979-1994.  Ed.  Malin  Wilson.  Los  Angeles:  Art 
Issues  Press,  1995. 

Kobal,  John.  The  Art  of  the  Great  Hollywood 
Portrait  Photographers,  1925-1940.  New  York: 
Knopf,  1980. 

Lacy,  Bill,  and  Susan  deMenil,  eds.  Angels 
and  Franciscans:  Innovative  Architecture  from 
Los  Angeles  and  San  Francisco.  New  York: 
Rizzoli,  1992. 

Lagoria,  Georgiana.  Northern  California  Art 
of  the  Sixties.  Exh.  cat.  Santa  Clara:  de  Saisset 
Museum,  University  of  Santa  Clara,  1982. 

Lancek,  Lena,  and  Gideon  Bosker.  Making 
Waves:  Swimsuits  and  the  Undressing  of  America. 
San  Francisco:  Chronicle  Books,  1988. 


Landauer,  Susan.  The  San  Francisco  School  of 
Abstract  Expressionism.  Laguna  Beach:  Laguna 
Art  Museum  in  association  with  the  University 
of  California  Press,  Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles, 
1996. 

,  et  al.  California  Impressionists.  Exh.  cat. 

Atlanta:  Georgia  Museum  of  Art;  Irvine:  Irvine 
Museum,  1996. 

Langsner,  Jules.  Four  Abstract  Classicists.  Exh. 
cat.  San  Francisco:  San  Francisco  Museum  of 
Art,  1959. 

LaPena,  Frank.  "Contemporary  Northern 
California  Native  American  Art."  California 
History  71,  no.  3  (fall  1992):  386-401. 

The  Last  Time  I  Saw  Ferns,  1957-1966.  Exh.  cat. 
Newport  Beach:  Newport  Beach  Art  Museum, 
1976. 

Lee,  Anthony  W.  Painting  on  the  Left:  Diego 
Rivera,  Radical  Politics,  and  San  Francisco's 
Public  Murals.  Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles: 
University  of  California  Press,  1999. 

Leese,  Elizabeth.  Costume  Design  in  the  Movies. 
New  York:  Frederick  Ungar  Publishing  Co., 
1977- 

Loeffler,  Carl  E.,  ed.,  and  Darlene  Tong,  assoc. 
ed.  Performance  Anthology:  Source  Book  for  a 
Decade  of  California  Performance  Art. 
Contemporary  Documents,  vol.  1.  San  Francisco: 
Contemporary  Arts  Press,  1980. 

Longstreth,  Richard.  On  the  Edge  of  the  World: 
Four  Architects  in  San  Francisco  at  the  Turn  of 
the  Century.  Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles: 
University  of  California  Press,  1998. 

Los  Four:  Almaraz/de  la  Rocha/Lujdn/ Romero. 
Exh.  cat.  Irvine:  University  of  California,  Irvine, 
1973- 

Made  in  California:  An  Exhibition  of  Five 
Workshops.  Exh.  cat.  Los  Angeles:  Grunwald 
Graphic  Arts  Foundation,  Dickson  Art  Center, 
University  of  California,  Los  Angeles,  1971. 

Maeder,  Edward.  Hollywood  and  History: 
Costume  Design  in  Film.  Los  Angeles:  Los  Angeles 
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SELECTED 


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Waugh,  Evelyn.  The  Loved  One:  An  Anglo- 
American  Tragedy.  1948.  Reprint,  Boston;  Little, 
Brown,  1999. 

Weibel-Orlando,  Joan.  Indian  Country,  L.A.: 
Maintaining  Ethnic  Community  in  Complex 
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Press,  1999. 

Weschler,  Lawrence.  Mr.  Wilson's  Cabinet  of 
Wonder:  Pronged  Ants,  Horned  Humans,  Mice  on 
Toast,  and  Other  Marvels.  New  York:  Vintage 
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West,  Nathanael.  The  Day  of  the  Locust  1939. 
Reprint,  New  York:  New  American  Library,  1983. 

Wollenberg,  Charles.  Golden  Gate  Metropolis: 
Perspectives  on  Bay  Area  History.  Berkeley: 
Institute  of  Governmental  Studies,  University  of 
California,  1985. 

Wong,  K.  Scott.  "Cultural  Defenders  and 
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Wood,  Samuel  E.,  and  Alfred  E.  Heller. 
California  Going,  Going:  Our  State's  Struggle  to 
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Wyatt,  David.  Five  Fires:  Race,  Catastrophe,  and 
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Yung,  Judy.  Unbound  Feet:  A  Social  History  of 
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Commerce."  California  History  64,  no.  1  (winter 
1985):  22-33. 


ILLUSTRATION   CREDITS 


Most  photographs  are  reproduced  courtesy  of 
the  creators  and  lenders  of  the  material  depicted. 
For  certain  artwork  and  documentary  photographs 
we  have  been  unable  to  trace  copyright  holders. 
We  would  appreciate  notification  of  additional 
credits  for  acknowledgment  in  future  editions. 


30 
37 
38-39 

42 
46 


©  Estate  of  Richard  Diebenkorn 

©  Edward  Ruscha 

©  David  Hockney 

Courtesy  of  Frank  O.  Gehry  &  Associates 

©  Michael  C.  McMillen 

Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  Syndics 

of  Cambridge  University  Library 

Courtesy  of  the  Bancroft  Library, 

University  of  California,  Berkeley 

left;  Santa  Barbara  Mission  Archive 

Library 

right:  Courtesy  of  the  Bancroft  Library, 

University  of  California,  Berkeley 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco,  gift 

of  Mrs.  Harold  R.  McKinnon  and  Mrs. 

Harry  L.  Brown,  1962.21 

top:  The  Huntington  Library,  Art 

Collections  and  Botanical  Gardens, 

San  Marino,  California 

bottom:  Fine  Arts  Museums  of 

San  Francisco,  gift  of  Mrs.  Harold  R. 

McKinnon  and  Mrs.  Harry  L.  Brown 

The  Huntington  Library,  Art  Collections 

and  Botanical  Gardens,  San  Marino, 

California 

left:  California  Historical  Society, 

Los  Angeles  Area  Chamber  of  Commerce 

Collection,  Department  of  Special 

Collections,  use  Library 

top:  California  Historical  Society, 

Los  Angeles  Area  Chamber  of  Commerce 

Collection,  Department  of  Special 

Collections,  use  Library 

bottom:  ©  The  Dorothea  Lange  Collection, 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California 

U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  National 

Archives 

top:  Southern  California  Library  for  Social 

Studies  and  Research 

bottom:  Photograph  by  John  Malmin; 

Los  Angeles  Times  Syndicate 

Courtesy  of  Common  Threads  Artists 

Group 

©  L.A.  Fine  Arts  Squad 

Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Natural 

History 

Private  collection;  photograph  courtesy  of 

Maxwell  Galleries,  Ltd. 

Photograph  by  Paul  M.  Hertzmann 

Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Natural 

History 

Photograph  by  Philip  Cohen 

Photograph  ©  Stefan  Kirkeby  Photography 

background:  Charles  Sumner  Greene  and 

Henry  Mather  Greene;  courtesy  Avery 

Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library, 

Columbia  University,  New  York 

Photograph  by  Scott  McClaine 

Photograph  ©  The  J.  Paul  Getty  Museum 


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i2id 
i23e 
124a 


126a 
126b 
128c 


i3id 


133c 
133d 


136a 
I37d 


Charles  E.Young  Research  Library,  ucla 

©  2000  Reproduction  authorized  by  the 

Instituto  Nacional  de  Bellas  Artes  y 

Literatura  and  the  Banco  de  Mexico, 

Fiduciary  and  Trust  of  the  Estates  of 

Diego  Rivera  and  Frida  Kahlo;  photograph 

©  John  Lodge 

©  Estate  of  Millard  Sheets 

©  1997  Peter  Stackpole  Estate;  photograph 

by  Ben  Blackwell 

Photograph  ©  Douglas  M.  Parker  Studio. 

All  rights  reserved 

©  Julius  Shulman 

background:  Architectural  Drawing 

Collection,  University  Art  Museum, 

University  of  California,  Santa  Barbara 

©  2000  Center  for  Creative  Photography, 

The  University  of  Arizona  Foundation 

©  The  Dorothea  Lange  Collection,  The 

Oakland  Museum  of  California 

©  1981  Center  for  Creative  Photography, 

Arizona  Board  of  Regents 

©  Estate  of  Millard  Sheets 

Courtesy  of  Fine  Arts  Museums  of 

San  Francisco;  photograph  by  Joseph 

McDonald 

©  2000  Reproduction  authorized  by  the 

Instituto  Nacional  de  Bellas  Artes  y 

Literatura  and  the  Banco  de  Mexico, 

Fiduciary  and  Trust  of  the  Estates  of 

Diego  Rivera  and  Frida  Kahlo;  courtesy 

of  UC  Berkeley  Art  Museum;  photograph 

by  Ben  Blackwell 

©  The  Dorothea  Lange  Collection,  The 

Oakland  Museum  of  California 

©Estate  of  Millard  Sheets 

©  Estate  of  Horace  Bristol/ Corbis.  All 

rights  reserved 

Photograph  by  Tsantes  Photography 

©  1974  Imogen  Cunningham  Trust 

©  1981  Center  for  Creative  Photography, 

Arizona  Board  of  Regents 

University  of  Southern  California, 

University  Libraries,  Regional  History 

Center,  Department  of  Special  Collections 

Photograph  by  Philip  Cohen 

Photograph  by  Lee  Stalsworth 

©  Chiura  Obata;  photograph  by  Ben 

Blackwell 

©  2000  by  the  Trustees  of  the  Ansel  Adams 

Publishing  Rights  Trust.  All  rights  reserved 

©  Estate  of  George  Hurrell 

Courtesy  of  Universal  Studios  and  the 

Academy  of  Motion  Picture  Arts  and 

Sciences 

Courtesy  of  Universal  Studios  and  the 

Academy  of  Motion  Picture  Arts  and 

Sciences 

©Estate  of  Will  Connell 

Photograph  ©  1978  Sid  Avery/Motion 

Picture  and  Television  Archive 

Photograph  ©  1999  Douglas  M.  Parker 

Studio.  All  rights  reserved 

Reproduction  courtesy  of  the  Miyako 

Hotel 


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160a,  b 
i6ie 


163b, e 

164a 

i65d 


©  2000  Reproduction  authorized  by 

the  Instituto  Nacional  de  Bellas  Artes  y 

Literatura  and  the  Banco  de  Mexico, 

Fiduciary  and  Trust  of  the  Estates  of 

Diego  Rivera  and  Frida  Kahlo;  photograph 

by  Ben  Blackwell 

©  2000  Reproduction  authorized  by 

the  Instituto  Nacional  de  Bellas  Artes  y 

Literatura  and  the  Banco  de  Mexico, 

Fiduciary  and  Trust  of  the  Estates  of 

Diego  Rivera  and  Frida  Kahlo 

©  Estate  of  David  Alfaro  Siqueiros/ 

soMAAP,  Mexico/vAGA,  New  York; 

photograph  by  Ben  Blackwell 

©  Estate  of  David  Alfaro  Siqueiros/ 

SOMAAP,  Me.xico/vAGA,  New  York; 

courtesy  of  El  Pueblo  de  Los  Angeles 

Historical  Monument 

Photograph  by  Joseph  McDonald 

Photograph  ©  1992  The  Metropolitan 

Museum  of  Art 

Photograph  by  Don  Myer 

©  1935  Quiilen 

©  2000  Reproduction  authorized  by 

the  Instituto  Nacional  de  Bellas  Artes  y 

Literatura  and  the  Banco  de  Mexico, 

Fiduciary  and  Trust  of  the  Estates  of 

Diego  Rivera  and  Frida  Kahlo 

Reproduced  with  permission  of  Authentic 

Fitness  Corp.  for  Cole  of  California. 

All  rights  reserved 

Used  with  permission  of  Boeing 

Management  Company 

©  The  Dorothea  Lange  Collection, 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California 

©  Lucia  Fames  dba  Fames  Office 

T/Sgt.  William  Lauritzen;  reproduced  by 

permission  of  the  Norton  Simon  Museum 

Archives,  Pasadena 

©  1998  Center  for  Creative  Photography, 

The  University  of  Arizona  Foundation 

Illustrated  by  Giacomo  Patri 

©  The  Dorothea  Lange  Collection, 

The  Oakland  Museum  of  California 

©  Chiura  Obata 

©  2000  by  the  Trustees  of  the  Ansel  Adams 

Publishing  Rights  Trust.  All  rights  reserved 

©  1999  by  the  Trustees  of  the  Ansel  Adams 

Publishing  Rights  Trust.  All  rights  reserved 

Photograph  by  Kaz  Tsuruta 

Photograph  ©  1978  Sid  Avery/Motion 

Picture  and  Television  Archive 

Reproduced  with  permission  of  Authentic 

Fitness  Corp.  for  Cole  of  California. 

All  rights  reserved 

©  1998  Collection  Center  for  Creative 

Photography,  The  University  of  Arizona 

Foundation 

©  Julius  Shulman 

©  Lucia  Fames  dba  Fames  Office 

background:  Architectural  Drawing 

Collection,  University  Art  Museum, 

University  of  California,  Santa  Barbara 

©  Lucia  Fames  dba  Fames  Office 

Photograph  ©  Tom  Jenkins 

©  1998  Center  for  Creative  Photography, 

The  University  of  Arizona  Foundation 


l67C 
l68a 
169b 


I77d 
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180b 
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184c 
i85d 
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193b 
194b 
195c 
196a 


196c       © 


20ld 

20ie 
202b 
204c 
205e 
206a 
207c 
208b 


Housing  Authority  of  the  City  of 

Los  Angeles 

©  1991  The  Estate  of  Louis  C.  Stc 

Museum  of  Photographic  Arts,  San  Diego 

©  2000  Man  Ray  Trust/Artists  Rights 

Society  (ars),  New  York/ADAGP,  Paris 

©  Estate  of  Richard  Diebenkorn; 

Photograph  ©  Douglas  M.  Parker  Studio. 

All  rights  reserved 

©  2000  by  the  Trustees  of  the  Ansel  Adams 

Publishing  Rights  Trust.  All  rights  reserved 

Marineland  brochure  reproduced  with 

permission  of  Busch  Entertainment 

Corporation 

BARBIE®  doll  ©  Mattel,  Inc.  Used  with 

permission 

Photograph  ©  1978  Sid  Avery/Motion 

Picture  and  Television  Archive 

Courtesy  of  the  Athletic  Model  Guild 

Reproduced  with  permission  of  Authentic 

Fitness  Corp.  for  Cole  of  California  and 

Christian  Dior,  Inc.  All  rights  reserved 

Photograph  ©  Tommy  Mitchell  Estate; 

model:  Jimmy  Mitchell 

©  Estate  of  George  Hurrell 

©  1940  Sin  and  Company,  Hollywood 

©  Estate  of  Philippe  Halsman 

©  1978  Sid  Avery/Motion  Picture  and 

Television  Archive 

Photograph  courtesy  of  Jack  Rutberg  Fine 

Arts,  Los  Angeles 

©  '955. 1957  by  Jack  Kerouac/ Viking  Press, 

Signet  Books 

©  1959  Time  Inc.  Reprinted  by  permission 

Photograph  by  Lee  Stalsworth 

Charles  Brittin;  photograph  courtesy  of 

Craig  Krull  Gallery,  Santa  Monica 

©  Estate  of  Jay  DeFeo/Artists  Rights 

Society  (ars),  New  York 

Photograph  ©  William  Claxton/opM 

Photograph  courtesy  of  the  artist 

Photograph  by  Scott  McClaine 

Photograph  by  Dean  Burton 

Photograph  by  Lee  Stalsworth 

©  Wolfgang  Paalen  Foundation 

©  Richard  Allen  Photography 

©  1969  Time  Inc.  Reprinted  by  permission 

©  Estate  of  Richard  Diebenkorn 

©  Roger  Minick 

©  1976  Christo;  photograph  by 

Wolfgang  Volz 

by  the  Trustees  of  the  Ansel  Adams 
Publishing  Rights  Trust.  All  rights  reserved 
©  Ester  Hernandez 
©  Wayne  Thiebaud/vAGA,  New  York 
©  John  Baldessari;  photograph  by  Philipp 
Scholz  Rittermann 
©  Edward  Ruscha 
©  David  Hockney 
©  Edward  Ruscha 
®  Judy  Chicago 
Photograph  by  Clinton  Smith 
Photograph  by  Kaz  Tsuruta 
©  Estate  of  Edward  Kienholz 
Road  Agent™  is  a  registered  trademark  of 
Ed  Roth  ©  2000;  photograph  ©  Darrel 
Arment 


209e 

Photograph  by  M.  Lee  Fatherree 

25ld 

2iid 

Photograph  by  Eva  Heyd 

213c 

©  Estate  of  Sam  Francis/Artists  Rights 
Society  (ars),  New  York 

2i5e 

Photograph  by  Ira  Schrank 

216a,  c 

:    ©  Family  Dog  Productions,  San  Francisco 

216b 

©  BGP  1967 

2l6d 

Colors  by  Mike  Roberts,  Berkeley 

25ie 

ii7g 

©  1973  Rick  Griffin,  Berkeley 

254c 

2i7h 

Photograph  by  R.  Marquis 

255d 

219c 

Photograph  ©  Hideki  Fujii 

256c 

2i9d 

Photograph  ©  William  Claxton/oPM; 

model:  Peggy  Moffitt 

257d 

220b 

Courtesy  of  Craig  Krull  Gallery, 
Santa  Monica 

258a 

221c 

©  Huey  R  Newton  Foundation 

258b 

225d 

Photograph  ©  1990  Philipp  Scholz 

259d 

Rittermann 

263d 

226a 

Photograph  ©  James  Prigoff 

264b 

226b 

Photograph  ©  Robin  Dunitz/ James  Prigoff 

267b 

227d- 

f  ©  1974  Harry  Gamboa  Jr. 

269c 

227g 

©  1972  Harry  Gamboa  Jr. 

270a, 

228a 

Reproduction  by  permission  of  United 
Farm  Workers 

228b 

©  Huey  R  Newton  Foundation 

228c 

Created  by  Peace  Action  Council, 
Los  Angeles 

229d 

©  2000  Rupert  Garcia 

230a 

©  Judy  Chicago;  photograph  by  Ian  Reeves 

230b 

©  Judy  Chicago;  photograph  by  Donald 
Woodman 

231c 

©  Miriam  Schapiro;  photograph  by 
Gamma  One  Conversions 

23ld 

Photograph  by  Otto  Stupakap 

23ie 

Photograph  by  Keith  Schreiber 

232a 

Photo  documentation  by  Phel  Steinmetz 

234a 

©  David  Hockney 

235b 

Photograph  courtesy  of  Apple  Computer, 

236b 
236c 

239e 
240a 
241c 


242b 
246b 
246c 


Photograph  courtesy  of  U.S.  Geological 

Survey,  Earth  Science  Information  Center 

©  Rod  Rolle 

Photograph  courtesy  AP/Wide  World 

Photos/Joseph  Villarin 

Photograph  1998  Lynn  Rosenthal 

©  Joel  Sternfeld 

Poster  reproduced  courtesy  of  Twentieth 

Century  Fox  Film  Corp.  All  rights  reserved 

Published  by  Henry  Holt  and  Company/ 

Metropolitan  Books 

©  1988  Faith  Ringgold 

Photograph  ©  James  Prigoff 

Courtesy  of  Victoria  Clare;  ©  Gonzales 

Graphics 

©  Estate  of  Carlos  Almaraz 

©  Enrique  Chagoya;  photograph  ©  Stefan 

Kirkeby 

©  Muna  Tseng  Dance  Projects,  New  York. 

All  rights  reserved 

The  barbie*  trademark  and  associated 

trademarks  and  copyrights  are  owned  by 

Mattel,  Inc.  and  used  under  license.  David 

Levinthal  is  not  affiliated  with  Mattel,  Inc. 


Reproduced  by  Special  Permission  of 

Playboy  magazine.  Copyright  ©  1998  by 

Playboy.  Baywatch  is  a  registered  trademark 

of  The  Baywatch  Production  Company. 

Playboy  is  a  registered  trademark  of 

Playboy  Enterprises  International,  Inc. 

Used  with  permission,  all  rights  reserved. 

©  Robert  Williams 

Photograph  courtesy  Haines  Gallery 

Photograph  ©  George  Hirosc 

©  2000  Nell  T.  Campbell.  All  rights 

reserved 

©  Lari  Pittman 

©  Estate  of  Robert  Arneson/vAGA, 

New  York 

©  Viola  Frey 

©  1983  Jonathan  Borofsky 

Photograph  ©  Becky  Cohen 

Photograph  by  Ben  Blackwell 

Courtesy  of  Lincoln  Gushing 

©  1994  Lalo  Alcaraz 

©  Dennis  Keeley 


INDEX 


Numbers  in  italic  refer  to  pages 
with  illustrations. 


Ackerman,  Jerome:  Ceramic  Pieces,  162 

Adams,  Ansel,  43,  73, 155, 170;  Born  Free  and  Equal, 

title  spread  from,  156;  Half  Dome  and  Moon, 

Yosemite  Valley,  171;  Monolith,  129;  Mt. 

Williamson,  156;  Yosemite  Valley,  196 
Adams,  Clinton:  Harrington  Street,  157 
Adams,  Harry:  Funeral  of  Ronald  Stokes,  220 
Adrian,  Gilbert:  Costume  for  Greta  Garbo,  132; 

Costume  for  Joan  Crawford,  131 
aerospace  materials  used  by  artists,  44,  208,  210 
affirmative  action,  prohibited,  61 
African  Americans:  depicted,  159,  177,  182-84,  200, 

220-22,  228-29,  237,  254,  262,  264;  magazines 

of,  160, 161,  173;  runaway  slaves,  52.  See  also 

Black  Panther  party;  black  power  movement; 

civil  rights  movement;  jazz  culture;  Watts 

riots.  See  also  under  Los  Angeles 
Aguilar,  Laura:  Nature  tt7  Self-Portrait,  251,  252 
AIDS,  art  dealing  with,  256;  awareness  march,  256 
Ain,  Gregory,  166;  Mar  Vista  Houses  Aerial 

Perspective,  162 
Albert,  Margot,  134 
Albrecht,  Herman  Oliver:  Three  Women  in  White, 

96 
Albright,  Thomas,  32 
Albro,  Maxine:  Fiesta  of  the  Flowers,  140 
Alcaraz,  Lalo,  political  cartoon  by,  269 
Alexander,  Peter,  202;  Cloud  Box,  209 
Alexander,  Robert,  166 
Alien  Land  Law  Act,  55 

All-Year  Club  of  Southern  California,  103,  108, 120 
Almaraz,  Carlos,  226;  Suburban  Nightmare,  247,  248 
Alta  California,  49-51,  92,  98 
Altoon,  John,  205 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  95 
American  Renaissance  style,  82 
Andre,  Carl,  209 
Angelo,  Nancy,  232-33 
Angelyne,  251 

Anglos,  50-51,  65,  82,  98, 100, 135, 136 
Antin,  Eleanor,  231-32,  233;  The  King  ofSolana 

Beach,  232 
Apger,  Virgil:  Carmen  Miranda,  178 
Apple  Macintosh  computer,  233 
Armand  Hammer  Museum  of  Art  and  Cultural 

Center,  36 
Arnautoff,  Victor,  113 
Arneson,  Robert,  36;  California  Artist,  258 
Artforum  magazine,  47n.  15 
Art  for  Victory  brochure,  150 
Artists'  and  Writers'  Union,  113 
Arts  and  Architecture  magazine,  160 
Arts  and  Crafts  movement,  83,  87-88 
Asco  (Harry  Gamboa  Jr.,  Gronk,  Willie  Herron, 

and  Patssi  Valdez),  226,  227;  Instant  Mural, 

227;  Spray  Paint  lacma,  227 
Asians:  43, 160;  viewed  as  exotic,  135-36, 140, 142. 

See  also  Chinese;  Japanese 
Asiatic  Exclusion  League,  55,  95 
assimilation,  268 
Austin,  Mary,  77 
automobile:  rise  of,  40,  56,  201-2;  as  subjects  for 

artists,  41,  204-8.  See  also  car  culture 
Automobile  Club  of  Southern  California,  56,  103, 

124 
Avalos,  David,  Louis  Hock,  and  Elizabeth  Sisco: 

Arte  Reemlwlso/Art  Rebate,  26S 


Avalos,  David,  and  Deborah  Small, 

Mis'ce'ge-NATION,  265 
Avery,  Sid,  172;  Dwight  D.  Eisenhower,  138;  Rock 

Hudson,  174 

Baca,  Judith/Social  and  Public  Art  Resource  Center 

(sPARc):  The  Great  Wall  of  Los  Angeles,  225, 

226  (detail) 
Bachrach,  Ernest:  Dolores  Del  Rio,  133 
Baldessari,  John:  Looking  East  on  4th  and  C,  199 
Balkan,  Adele  Elizabeth:  Sketch  for  Costume  for 

Anna  May  Wong,  134 
Baltz,  Lewis:  West  Wall,  199 
Banton,  Travis:  Costume  for  Marlene  Dietrich,  132 
Barbie  doll,  172, 173 
Barton,  Crawford;  Untitled,  219 
Baruch,  Ruth-Marion:  Shakespeare  Couple, 

Haight-Ashbury,  216,  217 
Bauer  Pottery,  140 

Baumann,  Gustave:  Windswept  Eucalyptus,  69 
Bay  Area  Figurative  school,  174 
beach  culture,  43,  158-59,  201-5,  208-9,  231 
Beat  cuhure,  58, 179-82, 185, 186,  214,  216 
Bechtle,  Robert  A.:  '67  Chrysler,  205,  206 
Behind  the  VVafer/ro/if  publication,  112 
Bell,  Larry:  Cube,  210,  211 

Belles  of  San  Luis  Rey  Mission,  The,  postcard,  92,  93 
Bender,  Albert,  137 

Bengston,  Billy  Al,  32,  205;  exhibition  announce- 
ment, 204;  Lady  for  a  Night,  202,  204 
Berman,  Wallace,  179, 180, 181;  Semina,  182; 

Topanga  Seed,  213,  214;  Untitled,  182 
Bhabha,  Homi,  39 
Biberman,  Edward:  Conspiracy,  179;  The  Hollywood 

Palladium,  164;  Sepulveda  Dam,  108 
Bierstadt,  Albert,  36,  73 

Birk,  Sandow:  Bombardment  of  Fort  Point,  243 
Bischoff,  Elmer,  174;  Two  Figures  at  the  Seashore,  175 
Bischoff,  Franz:  California  Poppies  Vase,  78,  81 
Blacker,  Robert  R.,  88 
blacklist,  179 
Black  Panther  party,  59, 193,  214,  228;  newspaper, 

228;  Window  of  the  Black  Panther  Party 

National  Headquarters,  221 
black  power  movement,  59, 193 
Blair,  Lee  Everett:  Dissenting  Factions,  112 
Blanchard,  Porter:  Coffee  Set  and  Tray,  no 
Blashfield,  Jim,  poster  by,  216 
Bohemian  Club,  84,  95,  97, 116 
Bojorquez,  Chaz:  Los  Avenues,  246,  247 
Borofsky,  Jonathan:  Flying  Man  with  Briefcase, 

258,  259 
Borough,  Randal  W.,  Portola  Festival  poster  by,  81 
Bothwell,  Dorr:  Translation  from  the  Maya,  136 
Bourdieu,  Pierre,  47n.  13 
Bowen,  Gaza:  The  American  Dream,  255 
Bracero  program,  147,  i9in.  2;  participants,  58 
Brach,  Paul,  229 
Brandt,  Rex,  169;  Surfriders,  175 
Braun,  Maurice:  Moonrise  over  San  Diego  Bay,  75 
Bremer,  Anne  M.:  An  Old  Fashioned  Garden,  80; 

The  Sentinels,  126 
Bridges,  Harry,  113,  I45n.  5 

Brigman,  Anne  W.:  Infinitude.  83;  The  Lone  Pine,  29 
Bristol,  Horace,  120;  /our/  Family  Applying  for 

Relief,  121 


Brittiii,  ('liarles:  Arrest  (Legs)  Downtown  Federal 

lUithiing,  220 
Brook,  Harry  Ellington,  Southern  California: 

The  Land  of  Sunshine,  booklet  by,  99 
Broun,  Elizabeth,  31 
Brown,  Joan,  181;  Girl  in  Chair,  176 
Brown,  Theophilus,  174 
Brubaker,  Jon  O.:  California:  America's  Vacation 

Land,  poster  with  illustration  by,  _u 
Bruce  of  L.A.,  174 
Bufano,  Beniamino  B.,  142;  Chinese  Man  and 

Woman,  143 
Bull,  C.  S.,  131;  Anna  May  Wong,  i}4 
Bull,  William  H.,  Polo  at  Del  Monte,  poster  by, 

74,  76 
bungalow,  81,  88, 157, 199 
Burden,  Chris,  35;  L.A.P.D.  Uniform,  245; 

Trans-Fixed,  207 
Burkhardt,  Hans:  Reagan — Blood  Money,  179 
Burnham,  Daniel,  54 
Bush,  George,  267 

Cabrillo,  luan  Rodriguez,  49 

Cacicedo,  Jean  Williams:  Tee  Pee:  An  Indian 

Dedication,  260,  261 
Cain,  James  M.,  132 
California  Arts  and  Architecture 

magazine,  150 
California  Faience:  Vase,  88 
California  Fruit  Growers  Exchange,  65;  coloring 

book,  116,  117 
California  Hand  Prints:  Textile  Length,  141 
California  Highways  and  Public  Works  magazine, 

106 
California  Holiday  in  Color  souvenir  book,  170 
California  Institute  of  the  Arts,  229,  233n.  16 
California  Lincoln-Roosevelt  League,  55 
California  School  of  Fine  Arts,  116 
Californios,  50,  51,  90,  94 
Candida  Smith,  Richard,  32 
Cantor  Center  at  Stanford  University,  36 
car  culture,  43,  44, 122,  201,  202,  204-7,  208.  See  also 

automobile 
Carload  of  Mammoth  Strawberries,  A,  78 
Carmel-by-the-Sea,  75,  77;  brochure,  76 
Case  Study  House  Program:  Case  Study  House  #8, 

160, 162;  Case  Study  House  #22,  160 
Catalina  Sportswear:  Woman's  Two-Piece  Bathing 

Suit  and  Jacket,  158 
Causa,  La,  58,  224,  229 
Celaya,  Enrique  Martinez:  Map,  2_^_^ 
celebrity  photography,  i}o-}i,  133-34,  174<  177 
Centre  Georges  Pompidou,  28 
Chagoya,  Enrique:  When  Paradise  Arrived,  248,  249 
Chandler,  Harry,  103 
Chandler,  Raymond,  132 
Chariot,  Jean,  137 
Chavez,  Cesar,  58,  224,  273 
Chavez  Ravine,  105, 166;  eviction  from,  167 
Chicago,  Judy,  229,  231;  Car  Hood,  204,  205; 

Georgia  O'Keeffe,  Plate  #1,  2}o;  Menstruation 

Bathroom,  230 
Chicanismo,  193 
Chicano:  art  movement,  44,  224-26,  267-68; 

civil  rights  movement,  44,  214,  219,  224-25, 

267-68.  See  also  Mexicans 


Chicano  Park  murals,  225-26;  photo  documenta- 
tion of,  226 

Chinatown,  95-97, 100, 137 

Chinese,  40,  51-53,  95,  97,  100;  depicted,  55,  93-97, 
I34<  t37<  '42-43,  249,  262.  See  also  under 
San  Francisco;  xenophobia 

Chinese  Revolutionary  Artists'  Club,  140 

Choris,  Louis,  ceremonial  headdresses  of  the 
Costanoan  Indians  by,  49 

Christo  and  Jeanne-Claude:  Running  Fence,  194,  196 

Cindrich,  Julius:  Evening,  125 

Cirrus  Editions,  36 

Civilian  Conservation  Corps,  57 

civil  rights  movement,  44, 58, 193,  219,  228,  229 

Clarke,  Emmon:  Untitled,  224 

classicizing  impulse,  82-84,  86 

Claxton,  William;  Stan  Getz,  184 

Cleaver  for  President  poster,  221 

Clifford,  James,  39 

Coburn,  Alvin  Langdon:  Giant  Palm  Trees,  90 

Cole  of  California,  151, 158;  advertisements  for, 
146,  176 

Common  Threads  Artists  Group:  Guess  Who 
Pockets  the  Difference?,  60 

Communist  Party,  113, 137;  Rodo  Shinbun  newspa- 
per, 136;  suspected  members  of,  179 

Compton,  Candace,  232,  233 

Comstock  Lode,  52 

Connell,  Will:  Make-Up,  132,  133 

Conner,  Bruce,  179, 181 

Contompasis,  Marika:  Trout  Magnolia  Kimono,  231 

Cook,  Lia:  Emergence,  211 

Coplans,  John,  32 

Corbin,  Ron:  Untitled,  244 

Coronel,  Antonio  de,  94 

Cortes,  Hernan,  49 

Costanoan  Indians  ceremonial  headdresses,  49 

Cottingham,  Keith:  Triplets,  235 

Coulter,  William  A.,  66;  San  Francisco  Burning,  67 

counterculture,  43,  214,  216,  228,  260.  See  also  Beat 
culture;  hippie  culture;  jazz  cuhure 

Covarrubias,  Miguel,  144 

Crawford,  Elsie:  Zipper  Light  11,  163 

Crawford,  Joan,  131, 132 

Crocker,  Charles,  53 

Cross,  Ira  Brown,  photograph  of  agricultural 
workers  by,  81 

Crown  Point  Press,  36 

Cuneo,  Rinaldo:  California  Landscape,  116,  117 

Cunningham,  Imogen:  Aloe  Bud,  123 

Curtis,  Edward  S.,  91;  A  Desert  Cahuilla  Woman, 
93;  Mitat-Wailaki,  93 

Dana,  Richard  Henry,  51,  266 

Dana  and  Towers  Photography  Studio:  #12;. 

Looking  East  on  Market  Street,  67 
Dandridge,  Dorothy,  177 

Dassonville,  William:  Half  Dome  and  Clouds,  72-73 
Dater,  Judy,  252;  Libby,  229 
Davies,  Arthur  Bowen:  Pacific  Parnassus,  Mount 

Tamalpais,  83 
Davis,  Bruce,  36 

Davis,  Mike,  44,  244;  Ecology  of  Fear,  242 
Davis,  Ron,  202;  Roto,  log,  210 
Dawson,  Robert:  Untitled  #\,  194,  193 
Deal,  Joe:  Colton,  241 
Deen,  Georganne:  Mary's  Lane,  253 
DeFeo,  Jay:  The  Jewel,  181 


DeMille,  Cecil  B.,  132 

DeLap,  Tony,  32 

de  la  Torre,  Einar  and  Jamex:  Marte  y  Venus,  263 

Del  Rio,  Dolores,  133, 134 

Deppe,  Ferdinand:  Mission  San  Gabriel,  30 

desegregation,  58-59 

Desmarais,  Charles,  36 

De  Staebler,  Stephen:  Seated  Kangaroo  Woman,  213 

Dey,  Kris:  Ancho  II,  239 

Didion,  Joan,  61,  276 

Diebenkorn,  Richard,  193,  273;  Berkeley  #32,  169; 

Freeway  and  Aqueduct,  30;  Ocean  Park  Series 

#49,  194 
Dietrich,  Marlene,  131,  costume  for,  132 
Dike,  Phil:  Surfer,  125,  127 
Dior,  Christian,  swimwear  by,  176 
Diotima,  Myrto,  and  Aspasia,  86 
Dirk  Van  Erp  Copper  Shop:  Table  Lamp,  89 
Disneyland,  170, 182,  248,  277-78;  admission  tickets, 

envelope,  map  for,  172 
Divola,  John:  Zuma  No.  21, 197 
Dixon,  Maynard,  124;  Airplane,  108 
Dodge,  Arthur  Burnside:  Taken  by  Surprise,  97 
Doheny,  Edward  L.,  54 
dons,  91,  94 

Doolin,  James,  cover  illustration  by,  242 
"Douglas  Defends  the  Democracies"  advertisement, 

148 
Drake,  Francis,  49 
Duffy,  Ricardo:  The  New  Order,  269 
Duncan,  Carol,  28 
Dynaton,  189 

Fames,  Charles  and  Ray:  Case  Study  House  #8, 
160, 162;  Esu  (Fames  Storage  Unit),  163;  etr 
(Elliptical  Table,  Rod  Base),  161;  Leg  Splints, 
130, 151;  Wire  Mesh  Chair  with  Low  Wire 
Base,  163 

Fames,  Ray,  cover  design  by,  130 

earthquake:  Loma  Prieta,  235,  236;  1906,  66,  75,  97 

earthworks,  194 

Ebony  magazine,  161 

Eichler,  Joseph  L.,  j6i 

Eichman,  Bernard  von:  China  Street  Scene  No.  1,  133 

Eisenhower,  Dwight  D.,  158 

Emergency  Farm  Labor  Program,  58 

Endore,  Guy,  Sleepy  Lagoon  Mystery  by,  133 

Entenza,  John,  160 

Eriich,  Susan,  35,  36 

Estrada,  Victor,  35 

European:  architects  and  designers,  109;  film 
makers,  131;  photographers,  97, 115 

Farm  Security  Administration,  118 

fashion  industry,  216,  250;  billboards,  251;  costume 

design,  131-32, 134;  swimwear,  14!,  J46, 151, 

157, 158,  J76,  218,  219;  unisex  fad,  218,  219 
Feitelson,  Lorser,  140 

Fellegi,  Margit:  Woman's  Bathing  Suit  and  Skirt,  158 
feminism,  193,  214,  229.  See  also  women's 

movement 
Ferus  Gallery,  32, 180, 182,  205,  229;  exhibition 

announcements,  202,  204 
Filipinos,  54, 152;  depicted,  118, 119 
film  noir,  132,  152 

Fine  Arts  Museums  of  San  Francisco,  36 
Finish  Fetish,  208,  209 


Fischinger,  Oskar:  Radio  Dynamics,  189, 190 

Fiskin,  Judy:  Untitled  #195,  244 

Fleishhacker,  Herbert,  113 

Fletcher,  Christine:  Fog  from  the  Pacific,  128 

Fletcher,  Frank  Morley:  California,  129 

Flick,  Robbert:  Pico  B,  271 

Foley,  Suzanne,  35 

Forbes,  Helen:  Manley's  Beacon,  123 

Foreign  Miners'  Tax,  51 

Fort,  Ilene,  77 

Fortune  magazine,  120 

Foulkes,  Llyn,  35;  Death  Valley,  193, 194 

Francis,  Sam:  SFP68-29,  21^ 

Franciscans,  50 

Frank,  Robert:  Covered  Car,  41;  Television  Studio, 

178 
Free  Speech  Movement,  58, 193,  214 
Fresno  State  College,  229 
Frey,  Viola:  He  Man,  258 

Friedkin,  Anthony:  Surfboard  in  the  Setting  Sun,  203 
Friedlander,  Lee:  Los  Angeles,  198, 199 
Fuente,  Larry:  Derby  Racer,  205 
Fulton,  William,  53 
furniture  design,  80,  82-83,  88-89, 109, 110-u,  151, 

161-63,  239 

Gaillard,  Slim,  182 

Gamble,  John  Marshall:  Breaking  Fog,  71 

Gamboa,  Harry,  Jr.,  226,  227 

gangs,  247 

Garbo,  Greta,  131, 132 

Garcia,  Rupert,  poster  by,  229 

Garnett,  William:  Lakewood  Housing  Project,  137 

Gearhart,  Frances  Hammel;  On  the  Salinas  River,  70 

Gee,  Yun:  Where  Is  My  Mother,  140-41, 142 

Gehry,  Frank:  Drawing  of  Disney  Hall,  42;  Model  of 

Disney  Hall,  42 
Gemini  G.E.L.,  36 
Genthe,  Arnold,  36,  97;  Chinatown,  San  Francisco, 

55;  The  Opium  Fiend,  95 
Gernreich,  Rudi,  174-77;  "Topless"  Bathing  Suit,  218, 

219;  Unisex  Caftan,  218,  219;  Woman's  Bathing 

Suit,  176 
GI  Bill  of  Rights,  190 
GUe,  Selden  Conner,  116;  Boat  and  Yellow  Hills,  74; 

The  Soil,  117 
Ginsberg,  Allen,  181, 182 
Gladding  McBean  Pottery:  Encanto  Chinese  Red 

Vase,  133 
Glaser,  Milton,  magazine  cover  by,  193 
Gledhill,  W.  Edwin:  Santa  Barbara  Mission,  92 
Coin,  Peter:  Impenetrable  Border,  266 
Golden  Gate  International  Exposition,  142-43 
Gold  Rush,  51-53,  65,  81,  273 
Goldvi^n,  Samuel,  131 

Gomez-Peiia,  Guillermo:  Border  Brujo,  263 
Gonzales,  David,  homies  action  figures  created  by, 

246,  247 
Goode,  Joe,  202,  213;  calendar  by,  205;  Untitled,  212 
Goodhue,  Bertram,  99 
graffiti,  226,  246,  247 
Gray,  Todd:  Goofy,  248 
Green,  Herb,  poster  photograph  by,  216 
Greene,  Charles  Sumner,  and  Henry  Mather 

Greene,  275;  Bedroom  Cabinet,  89;  Bedroom 

Rocking  Chair,  89;  Robert  R.  Blacker  House, 

South  Elevation,  88-89 


Grent,  William:  map  of  North  America  shov^^ing 

California  as  an  island,  48 
Griffin,  Rick,  Tales  from  the  Tube  comic  by,  217 
Gronk,  227 
Group  f/64, 108, 124 
Gutmann,  John:  The  Cry,  114, 115 

Hagel,  Otto:  Untitled,  113 

Hahn,  William,  36;  Harvest  Time,  52 

Halsman,  Philippe:  Dorothy  Dandndge,  177 

Hammett,  Dashiell,  132 

Hammons,  David:  Injustice  Case,  iii,  223 

handcraft  tradition  revival,  231,  260-61 

Hanna,  Phil  Tovi'nsend,  103 

Hansen,  James:  Beach  Scene  at  Santa  Monica  in 

1949,  158 
Harlow,  Jean,  131 
Harrison,  Helen  Mayer,  and  Newton  Harrison: 

Meditation,  197 
Hassam,  Childe:  California  Oil  Fields,  106 
Hawkinson,  Tim,  and  Issey  Miyake:  Jumpsuit,  231 
Hay,  Harry,  172 

Hayakawa,  Miki:  Telegraph  Hill,  104 
Hayward  Gallery,  32 
Hedrick,  Wally,  181 

Hedstrom,  Ana  Lisa:  Video  Weave  Kimono,  260 
Henderson,  Victor:  Isle  of  California,  61 
Henri,  Robert:  Tarn  Can,  96 
Herms,  George:  Everything  Is  O.K.,  214 
Hernandez,  Anthony:  #24,  236 
Hernandez,  Ester:  Sun  Mad,  197 
Herron,  Willie,  226,  227 
Hershman,  Lynn,  233;  Roberta  Breitmore's 

Construction  Chart,  232 
Hatch  Hetchy  Valley,  55, 73,  loin.  12 
Hibi,  Hisako:  We  Had  to  Fetch  Coal  for  the  Pot-Belly 

Stove,  255 
Hickox,  Elizabeth,  92;  Lidded  Trinket  Basket,  94 
hippie  culture,  58, 193,  214,  216-17,  21S,  220,  233n.  10 
Hockney,  David,  174;  Merced  River,  Yosemite  Valley, 

234,  239-40;  Mulholland  Drive,  38-39;  The 

Splash,  200,  201 
Holliday,  J.  S.,  52 
Hollywood:  classicizing  impulse,  84;  ideal  images 

promoted  by,  103, 130-35, 148, 172, 177, 178, 

250,  262.  See  also  celebrity  photography; 

motion  picture  industry 
homelessness,  60 
Homies  action  figures,  246,  247 
homoerotic  magazines,  174 
homosexuals,  172,  218,  219,  220,  244,  249 
Honda,  Margaret:  Perennial,  238,  239 
Hopkins,  Henry,  35 
Hopkins,  Mark,  53 

Hopper,  Dennis:  Double  Standard,  206 
Hord,  Donal:  Mayan  Mask,  136 
House  Un-American  Activities  Committee,  179 
housing  discrimination,  57, 105, 160, 161;  restricted 

housing  tract,  59;  Rumford  Act,  58 
How  a  Playground  Goes  to  War!  brochure,  37 
Howard,  John  Langley,  115;  The  Unemployed,  114 
Howard,  Mildred:  Black  Don't  Crack,  264 
How  to  Sin  in  Hollywood  booklet,  177 
Ho  Yow,  95,  97 
Hudson,  Rock,  174 
Hugo,  Leopold:  Untitled,  71 
Humble,  John:  Selma  Avenue  at  Vine  Street, 

Hollywood,  230,  251 


Huntington,  CoUis,  53 

Huntington  Library  and  Art  Collections,  36 

Hurrell,  George:  Jane  Russell,  177;  Joan  Crawford, 

131;  Norma  Shearer,  130;  Ramon  Novarro,  130 
Hutton,  William  Rich:  San  Francisco,  32 
Hyde,  Anne,  39 

Hyde,  Helen:  Imps  of  Chinatown,  96 
Hyde,  Robert  Wilson:  A  House  Book,  87 

identity:  ethnic,  133-35,  260-65,  267;  politics, 
249-50,  258;  sexual,  231-32,  251,  256-57 

Industrial  Workers  of  the  World,  81, 113 

Insurgent  Squeegee  (Lincoln  Gushing),  poster 
by,  267 

Irwin,  Robert,  205,  210;  Untitled,  211 

Izumi,  Shinsaku:  Tunnel  of  Light,  106 

Jackson,  Helen  Hunt,  94;  Ramona  by,  55,  86-87,  9i 

James,  George  Wharton,  91,  92 

Japanese:  depicted,  132,  134-56,  256,  263;  intern- 
ment, 43,  58, 128, 144, 153-54,  '55'  '56;  Rodo 
Shinbun  newspaper,  136.  See  also  under 
Los  Angeles;  xenophobia 

Japanese  Camera  Pictorialists  of  California,  136 

jazz  culture,  182-85;  jazz  clubs,  183 

J.  Paul  Getty  Museum,  36 

Jencks,  Charles,  27 

less,  179, 181;  Tricky  Cad,  180 

Johnson,  DeDe:  Woman's  Three-Piece  Playsuit,  138 

Johnson,  Sargent:  Elizabeth  Gee,  142, 143 

Jones,  Caroline,  35 

Jones,  Pirkle:  Window  of  the  Black  Panther  Party 
National  Headquarters,  221 

Judah,  Theodore,  53 

Kahlo,  Frida,  137;  Frida  and  Diego  Rivera,  138 

Kahn,  Louis,  275 

Kales,  Arthur:  The  Sun  Dance,  84 

Kanemitsu,  Matsumi:  Zen  Blue,  186 

Karlstrom,  Paul,  32,  35 

Kauffman,  Craig,  32,  202,  205;  Untitled  Wall  Relief, 

208 
Kean,  Kirby:  Night  Scene  near  Victorville,  122 
Keeler,  Charles,  88 

Keith,  William:  Looking  across  the  Golden  Gate,  74 
Kelley,  Mike,  35;  Frankenstein,  237 
Kerouac,  Jack,  first  paperback  edition  of  On  the 

Road  by,  180 
Kienholz,  Edward,  205;  Back  Seat  Dodge  '38,  206, 

207,  233 n.  6 
Kim,  Intae:  Death  Valley,  238 
Kinney,  Abbot,  84 

Kipp,  Maria:  Textile  Length  for  Drapery,  111 
Klein,  Norman,  35 
Klett,  Mark:  San  Francisco  Panorama  after 

Muybridge,  242-43  (detail) 
Kling,  Candace:  Enchanted  Forest,  260 
Kling,  Fred  E.:  Wedding  Dress,  216,  218 
Koenig,  Pierre:  Case  Study  House  #22,  160 
Kosa,  Jr.,  Emil  J.:  Freeway  Beginning,  164,  165 
Kozel,  Ina:  Our  Lady  of  Rather  Deep  Waters,  260 
Krauss,  Rosalind,  210 
Kropp,  Phoebe,  54 
Krotona,  84 
Kuntz,  Roger:  Santa  Ana  Arrows,  164,  165 


Labowitz,  Leslie,  230 

Lachowicz,  Rachel:  Sarah  #3,  254 

Lacy,  Suzanne,  231 

L.A.  Fine  Arts  Squad:  hic  of  Ccilijorma,  6; 

Laguna  Art  Museum,  35,  36 

Lakewood  residential  development,  157,  160; 
brochure,  14-/ 

Laky,  Gyongy:  Evening,  239 

L.A.  Look,  208 

Landacre,  Paul:  Desert  Wall,  122 

Landauer,  Susan,  35,  66,  74 

land  grants,  49,  51 

Landmarks  Club,  91 

Land  of  Sunshine  magazine,  66,  92, 103 

landscape,  40,  193-97,  238-40;  coastal,  74-77, 

125-27,  201,  238;  desert,  122-24, 193.  '94-95, 
238;  Edenic,  36,  39,  65,  68-73,  78-84,  99, 115, 
116-18,  128-29,  170-71, 193,  200,  238;  indus- 
trial, 106-9,  14S,  199;  modernist,  168, 169; 
suburban,  200-201,  206,  240-41,  247;  urban, 
66,  104-5,  112-15,  164-66,  169, 194,  198-201, 
206,  221,  236,  242-44,  250,  271;  wilderness, 
194,  201,  234,  238,  240 

Lange,  Dorothea,  155;  Filipinos  Cutting  Lettuce,  118, 
119;  Migrant  Mother,  120;  Pledge  of  Allegiance, 
154;  Resettled,  56;  A  Sign  of  the  Times,  115; 
Their  Blood  Is  Strong,  118;  Untitled,  149 

Lasky,  Jesse,  131 

Lasser,  Robin,  and  Kathryn  Silva:  Extra  Lean,  252 

Latin  American:  culture,  135-36;  stereotypes  in 
films,  134, 178;  themes,  40,  43 

Lavenson,  Alma:  Carquinez  Bridge,  106,  107 

Leary,  Timothy,  214 

Leavitt,  William:  Untitled,  243 

Lebrun,  Rico:  The  Magdalene,  186 

Lee,  Anthony,  144 

Leon-Portilla,  Miguel,  50 

Leuchtenberg,  William  E.,  103 

Levinthal,  David:  Untitled  #3,  250 

Life  magazine,  106, 115, 183;  "Squaresville  U.S.A.  vs. 
Beatsville,"  180 

Lindbergh,  Charles,  108 

Lipkin,  Janet:  Santa  Fe  Cape  #2,  261 

Lipofsky,  Marvin:  California  Loop  Series,  209 

Livingston,  Jane,  35 

Lockhart,  Sharon:  Untitled,  238 

Logan,  Maurice,  poster  design  by,  127 

Lomaland,  84;  souvenir  album,  86 

Longpre,  Paul  de,  78;  postcard  shovi^ing  garden  at 
home  of,  80,  81;  Roses  La  France  and  Jack 
Noses,  80 

Look  magazine,  181 

Los  Angeles,  54-59, 103, 193;  African  Americans  in, 
58-59,  66,  220,  244;  balkanization  of,  242, 
244,  245;  can  of  smog,  33;  Chavez  Ravine,  105, 
166, 167;  Chinatown,  97, 143;  civil  unrest,  62, 
220,  236;  depicted,  38-39,  104-5,  139^  164, 
165-67, 198,  201, 11^,  226,  236,  250;  Japanese 
in,  66, 153,  244,  265;  jazz  clubs,  182, 185; 
Mexicans  in,  54,  55,  56,  57,  66, 152,  226,  244; 
Olvera  Street,  139;  Pickford/ Fairbanks 
Studios,  56;  Plaza  de  la  Raza,  225;  restricted 
housing  tract,  59;  Self-Help  Graphics,  36,  225; 
street  signs,  270;  Watts  Towers,  167, 168, 181. 
See  also  Hollywood;  Sleepy  Lagoon  case; 
Venice  Beach;  Watts  riots;  Zoot  Suit  riots 


Los  Angeles  Chamber  of  Commerce,  103, 105; 

publications,  90,  99 
Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art,  226-27 
Los  Angeles  Department  of  Water  and  Power 

brochure,  108 
Los  Angeles  Housing  Authority  booklet,  165,  166 
Los  Four,  226;  exhibition  catalogue,  227 
Lotchin,  Roger,  57 
Lou,  Liza:  Super  Sister,  254 
Louisiana  Museum  of  Modern  Art,  35 
Luebtow,  John  Gilbert:  April  29,  1992,  237 
Lujan,  Gilbert  Sanchez,  205,  226 
Lukens,  Glen:  Gray  Bowl,  111 
Lum,  Bertha:  Point  Lobos,  76 
Lummis,  Charles  Fletcher,  65,  66,  91 
Luna,  James:  The  Artifact  Piece,  264,  265 
Lundeberg,  Helen,  43;  The  History  of  Transportation 

in  California,  108,  109;  The  Shadow  on  the 

Road  to  the  Sea,  169 
Lynch,  Allen,  205 

MacAgy,  Douglas,  185 

MacDonald-Wright,  Stanton:  Revolt,  119;  Canon 

Synchromy,  135 
MacGill,  H.  B.,  Motoring  thru  the  Yosewiteby,  128 
MacGregor,  Helen:  Reclining  Woman  with  Guitar, 

90 
Machell,  Reginald:  Katherine  Tingley's  Chair,  86 
Malcriado,  El,  journal,  228 
Maloof,  Sam:  Rocking  Chair,  239 
Mandel,  Mike,  and  Larry  Sultan:  Set-up  for  Oranges 

on  Fire,  192 
Manifest  Destiny,  51,  61,  201 
Man  Ray:  Watts  Towers,  167, 168 
Manuel,  K.  Lee:  Maat's  Wing  #3,  261 
Manzanar,  154, 155 
maps:  Disneyland,  172;  North  America  showing 

California  as  an  island  (Grent),  48;  Untitled 

{Ethnic  Map  of  Los  Angeles)  (Ocampo),  245 
Marineland,  170;  brochure,  172 
Marquis,  Richard,  and  Nirmal  Kaur:  American  Acid 

Capsule,  217 
Martin,  Fletcher:  Trouble  in  Frisco,  112 
Martinez,  Xavier,  83,  84 
Mason,  John,  36;  Sculpture,  186 
Mathews,  Arthur  Frank,  83;  California,  82 
Mathews,  Lucia,  83 
Mathews  Furniture  Shop,  83;  Desk,  82;  Rectangular 

Box  with  Lid,  80 
Matsui,  Haruyo,  Coronado  as  Seen  through  Japanese 

Eyes,  booklet  by,  75 
Mattachine  Society,  172 
Maurer,  Oscar:  Eucalyptus  Grove  Silhouetted  against 

a  Cloudy  Sky,  69,  70 
May,  Cliff,  157 
May,  Lary,  131 
Mayan  Revival,  40, 135 
Maybeck,  Bernard,  88 
McCarthy,  Paul,  35 
McGroarty,  John  Steven,  souvenir  book  for  The 

Mission  Play  by,  90 
McLaughlin,  John,  186;  Untitled,  187 
McMillen,  Michael  C:  Central  Meridian,  46 
McWilliams,  Carey,  52,  66,  90, 115, 152 
Mediterranean  sensibility,  82,  84 
Merrild,  Knud,  43;  Flux  Bouquet,  169 
Mesa-Bains,  Amalia:  Venus  Envy,  255 
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,  132 


Mexicans:  viewed  as  exotic,  82,  140-41;  depicted, 

118,  IJ9,  134,  138-40, 144,  153,  224,  228,  246, 

249;  deportation  of,  57, 120, 137;  displacement 

of,  166;  stereotyping  of,  100, 263;  and  suburbia, 

160, 161.  See  also  Bracero  program;  Chicano; 

Zoot  Suit  riots.  See  also  under  Los  Angeles; 

xenophobia 
Mexico:  border  with,  266-69;  painters  from,  40, 

119, 137, 140, 144;  Treaty  of  Guadalupe 

Hidalgo,  51,  62 
Middlebrook,  Willie  Robert:  In  His  "Own"  Image, 

237 
Midwesterners,  54,  55,  57,  65, 130,  276 
Miller,  Barse:  Apparition  over  Los  Angeles,  105; 

Migrant  America,  121 
Miller,  Frank,  91 
Millet,  Frani;ois,  118 
Mills  College,  154 
Minick,  Roger:  Woman  with  Scarf  at  Inspiration 

Point,  Yosemite  National  Park,  194, 195 
Minimalist  art,  210 
Miranda,  Carmen,  178 

Misrach,  Richard:  TV.  Antenna,  Salton  Sea,  241 
Mission  Bay  Aquatic  Park,  170;  brochure  for,  172 
Mission  Myth,  40,  86,  90,  91,  94,  99, 139 
missions,  91;  depicted,  50,  55,  90-93 
Mitchell,  W.  J.  T,  40 
Miyagi,  Yotoku,  cover  by,  114 
Miyako  Hotel  brochure,  137 
Miyatake,  Toyo:  Untitled  {1929),  137;  Untitled 

(1930),  141;  Untitled  {1943),  156 
Mizer,  Robert:  Quinn  Sondergaard,  174 
modernism,  109-11, 124, 161-63, 168-69 
Montecito:  Biltmore  Hotel,  140 
Montenegro,  Roberto:  Margo,  134 
Monterey  Peninsula,  75;  Hotel  Del  Monte,  66,  77; 

Polo  at  Del  Monte,  74,  76 
Montoya,  Malaquias:  jSi  Se  Puede!,  267 
Morris,  Robert,  209 
Morris,  William,  87 
Morrow,  Dwight,  137 
Moscoso,  Victor,  poster  by,  216 
Moses,  Ed,  205;  Untitled,  213 
motion-picture  industry,  40,  43, 55-56, 130-34, 

177-79;  disaster  movies,  241.  See  also 

Hollywood 
Mouse,  Stanley,  and  Alton  Kelley,  poster  by,  216 
Moya  del  Pifio,  Jose:  Chinese  Mother  and  Child, 

140-41,  142 
Muir,  John,  55,  73,  loin.  12 
Mulholland,  William,  54 
Mullican,  Lee:  Space,  189 
murals  by:  Asco,  227;  Baca/sPARC,  225,  226; 

Lundeberg,  109;  Ochoa  et  al.,  225,  226; 

Rascon,  267;  Refregier,  i45n.  5;  Rivera,  702, 

119, 120, 138,  144;  Siqueiros,  139;  Zakheim,  113, 

115 
Museum  of  Contemporary  Art,  35,  44 
museums:  exhibitions,  31-36,  role  of,  28, 31 
Muybridge,  Eadweard,  242 

Nakamura,  Kentaro,  125;  Evening  Wave,  127 
Nappenbach,  Henry:  Chinese  New  Year  Celebration, 

San  Francisco,  96 
Nash,  Steven,  36 
National  Museum  of  American  Art,  31 


Native  Americans,  40,  49-51,  90-92,  260-61;  bas- 
ketry, 94;  depicted,  49,  93,  100,  136,  265;  spiri- 
tualism, 43, 189;  stereotyping  of,  loo,  264-65 

Native  Daughters  of  tlie  Golden  West,  276 

Neutra,  Richard,  160, 161, 166,  273;  Channel  Heights 
Chair,  151;  Lovell  "Health"  House,  109, 110 

New  Deal  projects,  57, 115 

Newton,  Huey  P.,  59,  214,  221 

New  York  Central  Lines  poster,  34 

Nishio,  Linda:  Kikoemasu  ka?,  265 

Nitrve,  Lars,  and  Helle  Crenzien,  35 

Norniark,  Don,  167;  Untitled,  166 

Novarro,  Ramon,  130,  131 

Oakland  Museum  of  California,  35 

Obata,  Chiura,  154;  Farewell  Picture  of  the  Bay 

Bridge,  155;  New  Moon,  128 
Ocampo,  Manuel,  35;  Untitled  {Ethnic  Map  of 

Los  Angeles),  245 
Ochoa,  Victor,  et  al.:  Chicano  Park  Murals,  226 
oil  production,  54,  56, 103;  California  Oil  Fields 

(Hassam),  106 
Onslow  Ford,  Gordon:  Fragment  of  an  Endless,  189 
Opie,  Catherine:  Self- Portrait,  252,  253 
orange-crate  labels,  64,  78 
Ordofiez  de  Montalvo,  Garci  (Garci  Rodriguez  de 

Montalvo),  49 
Orozco,  Jose  Clemente,  137,  226 
Ortiz-Torres,  Ruben,  262;  California  Taco,  263 
O'Shea,  John:  The  Madrone,  68 
Our  WbrW  magazine,  161,  173 
Outterbridge,  John:  Together  Let  Us  Break  Bread, 

214,  215 
Owens,  Bill,  199;  Our  house  is  built  with  the  living 

room  in  the  back,  200 

Paalen,  Wolfgang,  189;  Messengers  from  the  Three 

Poles,  188 
pachucos,  152,  I9in.  5 
Pacific  Factory  magazine,  148 
Pacific  Ocean  Park,  170;  brochure  for,  172 
Panama-California  Exposition,  54,  98,  99,  264; 

brochure,  99;  guidebook,  99;  postcard,  100 
Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition,  98,  99; 

postcard,  98,  100;  program,  98;  souvenir 

stamps,  98 
Paradise,  Phil:  Ranch  near  San  Luis  Obispo,  u6 
Paramount  Pictures,  132, 189 
Park,  Claire  Campbell:  Cycle,  231 
Park,  David,  174;  Rehearsal,  184, 185 
Pasadena,  81 
Pasadena  Art  Institute,  155;  Art  for  Victory 

brochure,  150 
Patri,  Giacomo,  113;  illustration  by,  112 
Payzant,  Charles:  Wilshire  Boulevard,  105 
Pelton,  Agnes,  122;  Sandstorm,  123 
Penney,  Frederic:  Madonna  of  Chavez  Ravine,  105 
Perry,  Claire,  36 

Peters,  Charles  Rollo:  Adobe  House  on  the  Lagoon,  91 
Pettibon,  Raymond,  35 
Phelan,  James  D.,  57,  95;  Keep  California  White 

political  pamphlet,  95 
Photo  League,  158 
Physique  Pictorial  magazine,  174 
Piazzoni,  Gottardo,  84;  Untitled  Triptych,  83 
Pickford,  Mary,  131 
Pickford/ Fairbanks  Studios,  56 


Pictorialist  photographers,  84,  91, 106, 125 

Pitt,  Leonard,  51, 54 

Pittman,  Lari,  35;  Spiritual  and  Needy,  256,  257 

Plagens,  Peter,  32,  35,  208 

plague,  i45n.  28 

Playboy  magazine,  180,  25; 

Plaza  de  la  Raza,  225 

plein  air  painting,  66,  74, 193,  200 

Portola,  Caspar  de,  50 

Precisionists,  108 

Price,  Clayton  S.:  Coastline,  126 

Price,  Ken,  202;  exhibition  announcement  for,  202; 

Gold,  209 
printmaking  workshops,  36 
propaganda  posters,  1^2 

Proposition  187,  60,  268;  political  cartoon,  anti-,  269 
Public  Works  of  Art  Project,  113, 114 
Purifoy,  Noah:  Sir  Watts  II,  222 

railroads,  39,  54,  99, 100;  Transcontinental  Rail 

Terminal,  33 
Rally  against  Racism,  War,  Repression,  illustration 

from,  228 
Ramos  Martinez,  Alfredo,  137, 138-39;  Woman 

with  Fruit,  139 
ranch  house,  157, 180 
rancho  era,  90 
Rascon,  Armando:  Border  Metamorphosis:  The 

Binational  Mural  Project,  267 
Raven,  Arlene,  229 

Ray,  Charles,  35;  Male  Mannequin,  259 
Ray,  Joe,  199;  Untitled,  200  (detail) 
Raza,  La,  224;  publication,  224 
Raza  Graphic  Center,  La,  225 
Reagan,  Ronald,  59;  Reagan — Blood  Money 

(Burkhardt),  179 
real  estate  development,  74,  75, 103 
Redlands  Orange  Growers'  Association  crate  label, 

78 
Redmond,  Granville,  78,  200;  California  Poppy 

Field,  78-79,  272  (detail),  280 
Refregier,  Anton,  113,  i45n.  5 
Reiffel,  Charles:  Late  Afternoon  Glow,  122 
Rhoades,  Jason,  and  Jorge  Pardo:  #1  nafta  Bench, 

269 
Ringgold,  Faith:  Double  Dutch  on  the  Golden  Gate 

Bridge,  242 
Rivera,  Diego,  40, 113, 137-38,  144,  226;  Allegory  of 

California,  102, 138;  Allegory  of  California, 

study,  138;  Pan-American  Unity,  144  (detail); 

Still  Life  and  Blossoming  Almond  Trees,  118, 119 
Riverside:  Mission  Inn,  66,  91 
Rocha,  Roberto  de  la,  226 

Rodia,  Sabato  (Simon):  Watts  Towers,  167,  168, 181 
Rodo  Shinbun  newspaper,  136 
Romero,  Frank,  226,  245;  exhibition  catalogue 

design  by,  227 
Roosevelt,  Franklin  D.:  Good  Neighbor  policy,  137; 

Pan-Americanism,  40, 135, 137, 144 
Rose,  Guy,  200;  Carmel  Dunes,  77;  The  Old  Oak 

Tree,  68,  70 
Roth,  Ed  "Big  Daddy,"  205;  custom  car  created  by, 

20S 
Rothenberg,  Erika:  America's  Joyous  Future,  255 
Rubins,  Nancy,  35 
Ruscha,  Edward,  199;  Burning  Gas  Station,  37; 

Hollywood,  201;  Standard  Station,  202 


Ruskin,  John,  87 
Russell,  Jane,  177 
Rydell,  Robert,  98 

Saar,  Alison;  Topsy  Turvy,  264 

Saar,  Betye;  The  Liberation  of  Aunt  Jemima,  222 

Said,  Edward,  39 

Sakoguchi,  Ben:  Capitalist  Art  Brand,  196 

Saldivar,  Jose  David,  268 

Sample,  Paul:  Celebration,  121 

San  Diego,  74,  84;  Chicano  Park  murals,  225,  226; 
Coronado  as  Seen  through  Japanese  Eyes, 
7$;  Hotel  Del  Coronado,  66;  Moonrise  over 
San  Diego  Bay,  73;  Panama-California 
Ex-position,  54,  98,  99-100,  264 

San  Dimas  Orange  Growers  Association  crate 
label,  64 

San  Francisco,  51-52,  54;  Beats,  58, 180-81, 193; 
Chinatown,  33,  96,  97,  142,  i45n.  28;  Coit 
Tower  murals,  113, 115;  depicted,  32,  67,  74, 
104,  112,  135,  163,  242-43;  Golden  Gate 
International  Exposition,  142-43;  Haight- 
Ashbury,  193,  214,  217;  Panama-Pacific 
International  Exposition,  98,  99,  100;  Portola 
Festival,  81;  La  Raza  Graphic  Center,  225 

San  Francisco  Museum  of  Modern  Art,  32,  35 

San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge,  106, 107, 142, 
236 

San  Francisco  World  Fair  brochure,  144 

Santa  Barbara  Art  Museum,  35 

Santa  Fe  Railroad  brochure,  73 

Saroyan,  William,  274 

Sata,  J.  T,  136;  Untitled,  137 

satire,  132, 133, 196,  260;  parody,  245 

Save  Our  Sister  poster,  229 

Schapiro,  Miriam,  229,  230;  Night  Shade,  231 

Schimmel,  Paul,  35 

Schindler,  Rudolph,  109, 161;  Armchair  and 

Ottoman,  nr.  Bedroom  Dresser,  ur,  Shep 
House  Exterior  Perspective,  no 

Schoonhoven,  Terry:  Jsle  of  California,  61 

Schoppe,  Palmer:  Drum,  Trombone,  and  Bass,  183 

Schrag,  Peter,  59,  61,  268 

Schwankovsky,  Frederick  J.:  Woman  at  the  Piano,  87 

Scott,  Ridley,  35 

Seale,  Bobby,  59,  214,  222 

Seattle  Art  Museum,  32 

Self-Help  Graphics,  36,  225 

Sequoya  League,  91 

Serra,  Junipero,  50,  273 

Serra,  Richard,  209 

Shearer,  Norma,  130, 131 

Sheeler,  Charles:  California  Industrial,  164, 165 

Sheets,  Millard,  120;  Angel's  Flight,  104, 166; 
California,  116;  Migratory  Camp  near 
Nipomo,  120 

Shimojima,  Kaye,  136;  Edge  of  the  Pond,  123 

Shire,  Billy:  Untitled  Denim  Jacket,  216,  218 

Shore,  Henrietta,  magazine  cover  by,  124;  Untitled, 

Shulman,  Julius:  Case  Study  House  #8,  160;  Case 
Study  House  #22,  160;  Lovell  "Health"  House, 
109,  110 

Sierra  Club,  55,  73,  238 

Silver,  Larry,  172;  Contestants,  Muscle  Beach,  173; 
Newsboy  Holding  Papers,  159 

Simpson,  O.  J.,  pursuit  of  2.56 

Sinclair,  Upton,  113 


Siqueiros,  David  Alfaro,  40, 137,  226;  Tropical 

America,  119, 139, 140;  The  Warriors,  139 
Sleepy  Lagoon  case,  152;  Sleepy  Lagoon  Mystery,  153 
Slinkard,  Rex:  Infinite,  85 

Smith,  Alexis:  Madame  X,  254;  Sea  of  Tmn(piility,  26 
Smith,  Christina  Y.:  The  Commitment,  259 
Smith,  Henry  Nash,  10m.  10 
Social  and  Public  Art  Resource  Center  (sparc): 

The  Great  Wall  of  Los  Angeles,  225,  226 

(detail) 
Society  of  Six,  74 
Soja,  Edward,  27 

Somerville,  Travis:  Untitled  (Dixie),  262 
Sonsini,  John:  Mad  Dog  "Andreas"  Maines,  257 
Southern  California  Proletarian  Culture  League 

booklet,  U4 
Southern  Pacific  Railroad,  53, 59,  65,  73,  77; 

brochures,  66,  70;  poster,  J27 
SPARC.  See  Social  and  Public  Art  Resource  Center 
spiritualism,  43, 185-86, 189-90,  213-14;  Kabbalah, 

213;  Theosophy,  86;  Zen  Buddhism,  186, 

189,  210 
S.S.  ]ohn  Fitch,  148 

Stackpole,  Peter:  The  Lone  Riveter,  106,  107 
Stackpole,  Ralph,  144 
Stanford,  Leland,  53 
Starr,  Kevin,  77 
Stegner,  Wallace,  62 
Stein,  Walter,  53 

Steinbeck,  John,  118, 120,  274,  276 
Steinmetz,  Phel,  232 
Sterling,  George,  77 
Stern,  Sigmund,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  119 
Sternfeld,  Joel:  After  a  Flash  Flood,  240,  241 
Stop  the  Fence — Open  the  Border  poster,  267 
Stoumen,  Lou:  Tenements  of  Bunker  Hilt,  166,  167 
"straight"  photography,  106 
Struss,  Karl,  84;  Monterey  Coast,  84 
Stryker,  Roy,  118 
suburbia,  158-64, 168, 172,  27in.  10;  depicted,  147, 

157, 160,  162,  200,  247 
Sugimoto,  Henry,  154;  Mother  in  Jerome  Camp,  155 
sumi-e,  128 

Sunderland,  Elza:  Woman's  Two-Piece  Playsuit,  141 
Sunset  magazine,  66,  73 
Surrealism,  115 
Sutro  Baths  poster,  45 

Tackett,  Lagardo,  162;  Untitled,  163 

Tamarind,  36 

Tanforan  Detention  Camp,  155 

Taylor,  Gage:  Mescaline  Woods,  216,  217 

Teatro  Campesino,  El,  poster,  224 

television,  156, 172, 179,  201,  235-36,  251;  Tales  from 

the  Tube  (Griffin),  217;  Television  Studio 

(Frank),  178 
Teraoka,  Masami:  Geisha  and  aids  Nightmare,  256 
Teske,  Edmund:  Untitled,  215 
textile  designs,  158;  Textile  Length  for  Drapery,  111 
Theosophical  Society,  86 
Thiebaud,  Wayne:  Down  Mariposa,  198 
Thorsen,  William  R.,  88 
Time  magazine,  168, 170,  236;  cover,  193 
Tingley,  Katherine,  84;  chair  of,  86 
Tom  of  Finland:  Untitled,  219 
Torres,  Salvador  Roberto:  Viva  La  Raza,  224,  225 
Touring  Topics  magazine,  103,  108,  124, 124-25 
tourists,  65,  73,  90, 103, 128, 170 


Townsley,  Channel  P.:  Mission  San  Juan  Capistrano, 

92 
Trenton,  Patricia:  Independent  Spirits,  36 
Tse,  Wing-Kwong:  Cup  of  Longevity,  143 
Tseng,  Kwong  Chi:  Disneyland,  249 
Tuchman,  Maurice,  35 
Tule  Lake,  154 

Turner,  Frederick  Jackson,  loin.  10 
Turrell,  James,  210,  233n.  9 
Twain,  Mark,  52 

Underwood  and  Underwood  Publishers:  Yosemite 

Valley,  73 
unisex  fad,  218 

United  Farm  Workers,  224;  journal  of,  228 
unknown  artists:  Basket,  94;  Cahuilla  Basket,  94 
urban  development  projects,  164-66 

Valdez,  Luis,  224 

Valdez,  Patssi,  226,  227 

Valencia,  Manuel,  94;  Santa  Barbara  Mission  at 

Night,  91 
Valentine,  DeWain,  202 
Van  Keppel,  Hendrick,  and  Taylor  Green:  Small 

Chaise  and  Ottoman,  162,  163 
Van  Vleet,  T.  S.,  Once  a  Jap,  Always  a  Jap,  political 

tract  by,  152 
Venice  Beach,  84, 158, 162, 180, 181,  202,  207,  208; 

artists  of,  209,  225 
Vergara,  Camilo  Jose,  199;  Couple  on  Their  Way  to 

Church,  200 
Vescovi,  Ely  de:  Hollywood,  178 
Vizcaino,  Sebastian,  49 
Volcano  poster,  241 
Volz,  Herman,  113;  San  Francisco  Waterfront  Strike, 

Voulkos,  Peter,  36;  Camelhack  Mountain,  185 
Vroman,  Adam  Clark,  91;  San  Gabriel  Mission,  93 
Vysekal,  Edouard  A.:  Springtime,  85 

Wachtel,  Marion  (Kavanaugh):  Sunset  Clouds  #5,  69 

Wagner,  Catherine:  Arch  Construction  IV,  243 

Walker,  James,  36;  Vaquero,  50 

Walker,  Richard,  52 

Wallach,  Alan,  28 

Warner  Brothers  Studios,  278 

Warner,  Charles  Dudley,  82 

Warren,  Earl,  58 

Warrington,  Albert  P.,  84 

Watkins,  Carleton  E.,  36,  73;  Transcontinental  Rail 

Terminal,  53 
Watts,  Alan,  186 
Watts  riots,  58-59,  62, 193,  214;  National  Guardsmen 

during,  59 
We  Also  Serve  magazine,  149 
Weber,  Kem:  Airline  Armchair,  108,  J09 
Weeks,  James:  Two  Musicians,  184, 185 
Welpott,  Jack:  The  Journey,  195 
Wendt,  William:  Malihu  Coast,  77;  Wliere  Nature's 

God  Hath  Wrought,  70 
Weston,  Brett:  Garapata  Beach,  170 
Weston,  Edward,  125, 128;  Tomato  Field,  116;  Twenty 

Mule  Team  Canyon,  124 
White,  Minor:  Stm  m  Rock,  187 
Wicks,  Ren,  illustration  by,  146 
Wight,  Clifford,  115 

Wildenhain,  Marguerite:  Squared  Vase,  170 
Wilding,  Faith,  229 


Williams,  Robert:  California  Girl,  251 

Wilson,  Michael  G.,  36 

Winkler,  John  William  Joseph:  Oriental  Alley,  95 

Winn,  Albert  J.:  Akedah,  256 

Womanhouse,  229;  installation  at,  230 

woman's  suffrage,  55 

women's  movement,  228-29.  See  also  feminism 

Wong,  Anna  May,  134 

Wonner,  Paul,  174;  Untitled,  175 

Works  Progress  Administration,  57 

Works  Projects  Administration,  113 

World's  Columbian  Exposition,  98;  booklet,  99 

Wurster,  William,  151, 160 

xenophobia,  43,  60, 151;  against  Chinese,  40,  53,  97; 
against  Japanese,  144, 152-53;  against 
Mexicans,  152 

Yavno,  Max:  Muscle  Beach,  158,  159;  Night  View 
from  Coit  Tower,  163;  Street  Talk,  133 

Yonemoto,  Bruce  and  Norman:  Golden,  262 

Yosemite  Valley,  43,  55,  loin.  12,  239,  240;  depicted, 
64,  72-73,  128-29,  170-71, 194, 195-96,  234 

Young,  Liz:  The  Birth/Death  Chair  with  Rawhide 
Shoes,  Bones,  and  Organs,  252,  253 

Zakheim,  Bernard:  Library,  113 
Zen  Buddhism,  43,  186, 189,  210 
Zermeno,  Andrew,  poster  by,  224 
Zoot  Suit  riots,  58, 152 
Zukor,  Adolph,  131 


County  of  Los  Angeles 
Board  of  Supervisors,  2000 

Gloria  Molina 

Chair 

Michael  D.  Antonovich 

Yvonne  Brathwaite  Burke 

Don  Knabe 

Zev  Yaroslavsky 

David  E.  Janssen 

Chief  Administrative  Officer 


Mrs.  Dwight  M.  Kendall 

Mrs.  Harry  Lenart 

Robert  Looker 

Ms.  Monica  C.  Lozano 

Robert  F.  Maguire  III 

Steve  Martin 

Wendy  Stark  Morrissey 

Peter  Norton 

Mrs.  Stewart  Resnick 

Mrs.  Jacob  Y.  Terner 

Christopher  V.  Walker 


Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art 


Andrea  L.  Rich 
President  and  Director 


Senior  Trustees 

Dr.  George  N.  Boone 
Mrs.  Willard  Brown 
Robert  H.  Halff 
Mrs.  William  Pagen 


Board  of  Trustees, 
Fiscol  year  2000-2001 

Walter  L.  Weisman 

Chairman 

William  A.  Mingst 

Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee 

Michael  G.  Smooke 

Secretary 

William  H.  Ahmanson 

Frank  E.  Baxter 

Daniel  N.  Belin 

Mrs.  Lionel  Bell 

Frank  J.  Biondi  Jr. 

Milce  R.  Bowlin 

Donald  L.  Bren 

Gerald  Breslauer 

Eli  Broad 

Ronald  W.  Burkle 

Iris  Cantor 

Mrs.  William  M.  Carpenter 

Mrs.  Edward  W.  Carter 

Willard  G.  Clark 

Robert  A.  Day 

Jeremy  G.  Fair 

Michael  R.  Forman 

Mrs.  Camilla  Chandler  Frost 

Julian  Ganz  Jr. 

Herbert  M.  Gelfand 

Stanley  Grinstein 

Enrique  Hernandez  Jr. 

John  F.  Hotchkis 

Mrs.  Judith  Gaillard  Jones 

Janet  Karatz 


Life  Trustees 

Mrs.  Howard  Ahmanson 

Robert  H.  Ahmanson 

Robert  O.  Anderson 

The  Honorable  Walter  H.  Annenberg 

Mrs.  Anna  Bing  Arnold 

Mrs.  Freeman  Gates 

Joseph  B.  Koepfli 

Bernard  Lewin 

Eric  Lidow 

Mrs.  Lillian  Apodaca  Weiner 

Past  Presidents 

Edward  W  Carter 

1961-66 

Sidney  F.  Brody 

1966-70 

Dr.  Franklin  D.  Murphy 

1970-74 

Richard  E.  Sherwood 

1974-78 

Mrs.  F.  Daniel  Frost 

1978-82 

Julian  Ganz  Jr. 

1982-86 

Daniel  N.  Belin 

1986-90 

Robert  R  Maguire  III 

1990-94 

William  A.  Mingst 

1994-98 


continued  from  front  flap 

Made  in  California  is  divided  into  five  tv^enty-year 
sections,  each  including  a  narrative  essay  discussing  the 
history  of  that  era  and  highhghting  topics  relevant  to 
its  visual  culture.  Two  overarching  themes  emerge  that 
have  been  crucial  for  how  we  imagine  and  understand 
California:  first,  the  landscape,  including  both  the  natu- 
ral and  the  built  environment,  and  second,  the  state's 
cultural  and  ethnic  character,  particularly  in  relation  to 
Latin  America  and  Asia.  Geographer  Michael  Dear  has 
contributed  a  broad  overview  of  the  social  history  of 
California,  examining  the  vibrant  and  sometimes  turbu- 
lent conditions  that  gave  rise  to  this  art.  Essayist  Richard 
Rodriguez  closes  the  volume  with  a  uniquely  personal 
meditation  on  the  Golden  State. 


Stephanie  Barron  is  Senior  Curator  of  Modern  and 
Contemporary  Art  and  Vice  President  of  Education 
and  Public  Programs  at  the  Los  Angeles  County 
Museum  of  Art.  Sheri  Bernstein  is  Exhibition  Associate 
at  LACMA.  Ilene  Susan  Fort  is  Curator  of  American 
Art  at  LACMA.  Howard  N.  Fox  is  Curator  of  Modern  and 
Contemporary  Art  at  lacma.  Michael  Dear  is  Director 
of  the  University  of  Southern  California's  Southern 
California  Studies  Center  and  author  most  recently 
of  The  Postmodern  Urban  Condition  (2000).  Richard 
Rodriguez  is  author  of  Days  of  Obligation  (1992), 
Hunger  of  Memory  (1982),  and  is  a  frequent  contributor 
to  Harper's,  The  New  York  Times,  and  The  News  Hour 


564  illustrations,  including  402  in  full  color 


Published  by 

Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art 

5905  Wilshire  Boulevard 

Los  Angeles,  California  90036 

in  association  with 

University  of  California  Press 

Berkeley,  California  94720 

Printed  in  California